May 7 2006
ספר שופטים פרק ה
ותשר דבורה וברק בן-אבינעם ביום ההוא לאמר:
בפרע פרעות בישראל בהתנדב עם ברכו יהוה:
שמעו מלכים האזינו רזנים
אנכי ליהוה אנכי אשירה אזמר ליהוה אלהי ישראל:
יהוה בצאתך משעיר בצעדך משדה אדום
ארץ רעשה גם-שמים נטפו גם-עבים נטפו מים
הרים נזלו מפני יהוה זה סיני מפני יהוה אלהי ישראל:
בימי שמגר בן-ענת בימי יעל
חדלו ארחות והלכי נתיבות ילכו ארחות עקלקלות:
חדלו פרזון בישראל חדלו עד שקמתי דבורה שקמתי אם בישראל
יבחר אלהים חדשים אז לחם שערים:
מגן אם-יראה ורמח בארבעים אלף בישראל
לבי לחוקקי ישראל:
המתנדבים בעם ברכו יהוה
רכבי אתנות צחרות ישבי על-מדין והלכי על-דרך שיחו מקול מחצצים
בין משאבים שם יתנו צדקות יהוה צדקת פרזון בישראל
אז ירדו לשערים עם-יהוה:
עורי עורי דבורה עורי עורי דברי-שיר
קום ברק ושבה שביך בן-אבינעם
אז ירד שריד לאדירים עם יהוה ירד לי בגבורים:
מני אפרים שרים בעמק אחריך בנימין בעממיך
מני מכיר ירדו מחקקים ומזבולן משכים בשבט ספר
ושרי ביששכר עם-דברה ונפתלי כן ברק בעמק שלח ברגליו:
בפלגות ראובן גדלים חקקי לב
למה ישבת בין המשפתים לשמע שרקות עדרים?
בפלגות ראובן גדולים חקקי לב:
גלעד בעבר הירדן שכן ודן למה יגור אניות
אשר ישב לחוף ימים ועל מפרציו ישכון:
זבלון עם חרף נפשו למות ונפתלי על מרומי שדה:
באו מלכים נלחמו אז נלחמו מלכי כנען בתענך על-מי מגדו בצע כסף לא לקחו
מן-שמים נלחמו הכוכבים ממסלותם נלחמו עם-סיסרא:
נחל קישון גרפם נחל קדומים נחל קישון:
תדרכי נפשי עז אז הלמו עקבי-סוס ??מדהרות?? דהרות אביריו:
אורו מרוז אמר מלאך יהוה ארו ארור ישביה
כי לא-באו לעזרת יהוה לעזרת יהוה בגבורים:
תברך מנשים יעל אשת חבר הקיני מנשים באהל תברך
מים שאל חלב נתנה בספל אדירים הקריבה חמאה:
ידה ליתד תשלחנה וימינה להלמות עמלים
והלמה סיסרא מחקה ראשו ומחצה וחלפה רקתו:
בין רגליה כרע נפל שכב בין רגליה כרע נפל
באשר כרע שם נפל שדוד:
בעד החלון נשקפה ותיבב אם סיסרא בעד האשנב
מדוע בשש רכבו לבוא מדוע אחרו פעמי מרכבותיו:
חכמות שרותיה תענינה אף-היא תשיב אמריה לה
הלא ימצאו יחלקו שלל
רחם רחמתים לראש גבר
שלל צבעים לסיסרא שלל צבעים
רקמה צבע רקמתים לצוארי שלל:
כן יאבדו כל-אויביך יהוה ואהביו כצאת השמש בגברתו:
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ספר שופטים פרק ה
ותשר דבורה וברק בן-אבינעם ביום ההוא לאמר:
Deb'orah and Barak the son of Abin'o-am sand on that day:

בפרע פרעות בישראל בהתנדב עם ברכו יהוה:
Those who have disheveled their hair (in preparation for war); those who have volunteered among the people, bless Yahweh!

שמעו מלכים האזינו רזנים
אנכי ליהוה אנכי אשירה אזמר ליהוה אלהי ישראל:
Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes.
I sing to Yahweh, I make melody to Yahweh, God of Israel.

יהוה בצאתך משעיר בצעדך משדה אדום
ארץ רעשה גם-שמים נטפו גם-עבים נטפו מים
הרים נזלו מפני יהוה זה סיני מפני יהוה אלהי ישראל:
Yahweh, when you departed from Se'ir, when you marched from the field of Edom,
the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped water.
Mountains quaked before Yahweh; this Sinai (quaked) before Yahweh, God of Israel.

בימי שמגר בן-ענת בימי יעל
חדלו ארחות והלכי נתיבות ילכו ארחות עקלקלות:
In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, in the days of Ja'el,
caravans ceased and travelers kept to the byways.

חדלו פרזון בישראל חדלו עד שקמתי דבורה שקמתי אם בישראל
יבחר אלהים חדשים אז לחם שערים:
The peasantry ceased in Israel. They ceased until I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel.
When he (Israel) chose new leaders, then war was in the gates.

מגן אם-יראה ורמח בארבעים אלף בישראל
לבי לחוקקי ישראל:
Was shield or spear to be seen among forty thousand in Israel,
when my heart was given to the commanders of Israel?

המתנדבים בעם ברכו יהוה
רכבי אתנות צחרות ישבי על-מדין והלכי על-דרך שיחו מקול מחצצים:
You who volunteer among the people, bless Yahweh.Talk of the sound of archers, you who ride on tawny asses, you who sit on rich carpets and you who walk by the way.

בין משאבים שם יתנו צדקות יהוה צדקת פרזנו בישראל
אז ירדו לשערים עם-יהוה:
At the watering places, there they repeated the triumphs of Yahweh, the triumphs of his peasantry in Israel. Then the people of Yahweh went down to the gates, saying:

עורי עורי דבורה עורי עורי דברי-שיר
קום ברק ושבה שביך בן-אבינעם
Awake, awake, Deb'orah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abin'o-am.

אז ירד שריד לאדירים עם יהוה ירד לי בגבורים:
Then the remnant of the nobles descended; the people of the LORD marched down for me, among the mighty.

מני אפרים שרים בעמק אחריך בנימין בעממיך
From E'phraim princes set out to the valley, following Benjamin among his people.

מני מכיר ירדו מחקקים ומזבולן משכים בשבט ספר
From Machir commanders descended, and from Zeb'ulun those who carry the marshal's staff.

ושרי ביששכר עם-דברה ונפתלי כן ברק בעמק שלח ברגליו:
The princes of Is'sachar came with Deb'orah, and Naphtali followed Barak;
into the valley he (Naphtali) rushed forth at his (Barak) heels.

בפלגות ראובן גדלים חקקי לב
למה ישבת בין המשפתים לשמע שרקות עדרים?
בפלגות ראובן גדולים חקקי לב:
Among the clans of Reuben there are great commanders of heart.Why did you tarry among the sheepfolds, to hear the piping for the flocks?
Among the clans of Reuben there are great commanders of heart.

גלעד בעבר הירדן שכן ודן למה יגור אניות
אשר ישב לחוף ימים ועל מפרציו ישכון:
Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan; and Dan, why did he abide with the ships?
Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, settling down by his landings.

זבלון עם חרף נפשו למות ונפתלי על מרומי שדה:
Zeb'ulun is a people that jeoparded their lives to the death; Naph'tali too, from the heights of the field.

באו מלכים נלחמו אז נלחמו מלכי כנען בתענך
על-מי מגדו בצע כסף לא לקחו:
The kings of Canaan came and fought alongside Taanach;
They did not take silver (unjustified) gain for the waters of Megiddo.

מן-שמים נלחמו הכוכבים ממסלותם נלחמו עם-סיסרא
נחל קישון גרפם נחל קדומים נחל קישון:
But the stars from heaven fought; from their courses they fought against Sis'era.
The torrent Kishon swept them away, the onrushing torrent, the torrent Kishon.

תדרכי נפשי עז
אז הלמו עקבי-סוס ??מדהרות?? דהרות אביריו:
My soul, stampeded with might!Then the horses' hoofs were beaten and the galloping steeds were ??stranded??

אורו מרוז אמר מלאך יהוה ארו ארור ישביה
כי לא-באו לעזרת יהוה לעזרת יהוה בגבורים:
Meroz shall be cursed, says the angel of Yahweh; its inhabitants utterly cursed.
Because they dsid not come to the help of Yahweh among the mighty warriors.

תברך מנשים יעל אשת חבר הקיני מנשים באהל תברך
מים שאל חלב נתנה בספל אדירים הקריבה חמאה:
Ja'el, the wife of Heber the Ken'ite, shall be blessed among tent-dwelling women.
He asked water but she gave him milk, she brought him curds in a noble bowl.

ידה ליתד תשלחנה וימינה להלמות עמלים
והלמה סיסרא מחקה ראשו ומחצה וחלפה רקתו:
She put her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet.
She struck Sis'era a blow, she crushed his head, she shattered and pierced his temple.

בין רגליה כרע נפל שכב בין רגליה כרע נפל
באשר כרע שם נפל שדוד:
He kneed, fell down, and lay still at her feet;
where he kneed, there he fell dead.

בעד החלון נשקפה ותיבב אם סיסרא בעד האשנב
מדוע בשש רכבו לבוא מדוע אחרו פעמי מרכבותיו:
Out of the window she peered; the mother of Sis'era gazed through the lattice:
`Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?'

חכמות שרותיה תענינה אף-היא תשיב אמריה לה
Her wisest ladies make answer, nay, she gives answer to herself:

הלא ימצאו יחלקו שלל
רחם רחמתים לראש גבר
Are they not finding and dividing the spoil,
one womb or two wombs to the head of each mighty warrior?

שלל צבעים לסיסרא שלל צבעים
רקמה צבע רקמתים לצוארי שלל:
spoil of dyed garments for Sis'era,
one or two embroidered dyed garments for my neck as spoil?
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The previous is an all-new translation based on my extensive research. I should be noted that the "Song of Deborah" is one of the oldest pieces of literature in the Bible, if not the oldest. This is why one must be creative when interpreting this poem. There is the likelihood of terms that do not occur elsewhere in the bible and there's also the likelihood of copyist errors, which further impeded our ability to properly understand the original meaning of the poem.

My English translation is based on the NRSV and I have retained some of its amendations to the Hebrew text. But I have also rejected much of it and I have divided the poem into different stanzas and verses based on a new reading. I will point out some of my findings below:
First I must emphasize that this poem, as we have it, is the word of Deborah (after she and Barak defeated Sisera and the Canaanites). Some scholars have suggested otherwise, seemingly because of the saying "awake Deborah..." which seems to come from someone else. However, as you will see below, Deborah is quoting what the warriors said to her and Barak when preparing for battle. This should be compared with the poem of Chanah in 1samuel, which is also authored by a woman.

The first verse talking about long disheveled hair refers to the practice of growing long hair when preparing for battle. This is known as an ancient Canaanite custom and we also see it with Samson whose strength is sapped as soon as his hair is cut. However, the Hebrew letter "beth" prefixed to "pr'" (those who grow their hair long) and to "hithnadeb be'am" (those who volunteer among the people) does not mean "when"; it does not talk about a timing. Rather, it means "among". Throughout the poem, Deborah is contrasting those who contributed to the Israelite cause in the battle and those who did not; the good guys (Deborah, Barak, Ephraim, Benjamin, Makir, Zebulun, Issachar, Naphtali and Ya'el) and the bad guys (Reuben, Gile'ad, Dan, Asher, Canaanite kings, Sisera and Mother os Sisera). We see that not all Israelite tribes joined the battle, and this is why Deborah emphasizes that only those who grew long hair and volunteered to join the coalition against Sisera, are entitled to "bless yahweh". Presumably, those who did not join the coalition are still under tribute to Sisera and the Canaanites and so have no reason to celebrate.

Verse 4 and 5. The common understanding is that Deborah is recounting history here and is referring to the Covenant Proclamation (Matan Torah) at Sinai some several centuries earlier. But I am reluctant to accept this for several reasons: 1. There is no mention of rain anywhere in J, E, P or D with regard to the Matan Torah episode. Secondly, it simply does not relate to the events at hand. These verses, so understood, seem highly intrusive and impede dthe flow of the text. There is no connection at all between verse five and six. Third, Deborah implies later in the poem that the defeat of Sisera and the Canaanites had something to do with the plain of Jezreel becoming swmaped and thus stranding the Canaanite horses (the Israelites had no horses).
Therefore, I believe, that Deborah is talking about the event at hand. She is saying that Yahweh departed from Se'ir/Edom/Sinai, crossing the Jordan and continuing north to the plain of Jezreel and dropping rain upon the valley thus stranding the Canaanites and facilitating their defeat. Why is there a need for Yahweh to leave Se'ir? Well, in those days, most people believed in "henotheism" (existence of multiple gods, each dominant in his own land). Yahweh was known to be en Edomite god, that is, a god that had power over the southern region only. In attributing Israel's victory to Yahweh, Deborah had to imagine that Yahweh traveled all the way from his home turf at Sinai/Edom to the Jezreel valley in order to help the Israelites. This was a relatively novel concept at the time (the ability of a local deity to help people at a different location) and that's why Deborah had to explain this process in detail.

Wasn't Yahweh already widely worshipped in the North, in Deborah's days?
Not quite! According to our theory, Yahwism originated among the Levites in the south. Gershom the Levite who served in Micah's temple for some time, was later transferred all the way to Dan (in the far north of Israel) and in the process spread the new religion throughout the land. We see that Deborah was a Yahwist but she was, nonetheless, a recent convert to Yahwism and she still thought of Yahweh as a southern god. It took some time for the northerners to adopt Yahweh as their own and perceive him as dwelling in their midst. In fact, the Northerners never quite accomplished this and to the very end of their kingdom they continued to worship local Canaanite deities such as Ba'al and Istarte (ashtoreth) while at the same time maintaining some fealty to Yahweh as well.

Verse 8. "He chose new gods" is the literal meaning of "yibchar elohim chadashim" but such a statement does not seem to make any sense here and so scholars have come up with various interpretations. My interpretation makes use of the fact that we find "elohim" to sometimes mean a leader elsewhere in the Bible. See Ex 7:1 "See I have appointed you a God over Pharaoh". Deborah is bragging about her accomplishments. She is contrasting the state of political affairs before she same to poser and afterwards: When Israel chose new leaders (that is, me, Deborah) then they became ready to wage war upon the gates of their enemy.

As you can see from my translation, the following verse actually contains the same theme. "My heart to the commanders of Israel" means "I have given my heart and courage to the commanders of Israel". Evidence that this is the meaning of phrase can be seen from the term "choqeqei leb" mentioned with regard to Reuben (verse 15). This, in my opinion, could have no other meaning that "commanders of heart" (couragous commanders). Accordingly, here too, Deborah is instilling her heart (courage) in the Israelite commanders (from macir, v. 14). Deborah is pointing out the bravery of the figthers, how they had no iron weapons, whereas the Canaanites did, and yet had the courage to resist their oppression with whatever meager weaponry is available to them.

Verse 10. "mechatsetsim" is an obscure word and scholars are struggling to make sense of it. I think it means "archers" (from the root chts) and that this clause is a parallel to the previous one calling on the volunteers to bless Yahweh. Deborah is calling upon the various Israelite classes; those who ride on asses, those who sit on carpets and those who walk on their feet. She is calling on them to "talk about the sound of the archers", which means praise the archers or praise Yahweh for the archers success. I have some suspicion that the word "qol" may have originally spelled "qal" without a waw which could mean "lightness/agility". Accordingly, Deborah is praising the agility of the archers in pursuing the horseriding Cananites (archers had to be fast runners). Compare this to the "Jonathan Song" in 2Samuel 1. The song talks about the "bow song" or of the necessity to teach Israel how to use the bow and then it mentions how the gazelle of Israel had been slain, (the gazelle being well known for its agility) thus comparing the archer to an agile gazelle. Later in verse 23, the Jonathan poem says openly "they were more agile than eagles" using the Hebrew root "qal" for agility. There is also a possibility that the Hebrew "sichu" (talk) should be "shiru" (sing).

Verse 11. This verse begins at "bein mishabim" (between the water-pumps, outside the village) and returns to the past. While the previous verse talked about blessing Yahweh for the victory, now Deborah is recounting what occurred at the watering pumps outside the Israelite villages where they had assembled for battle. They were talking about the anticipated triumphs of the "villagers" and asking Deborah to sing to them and Barak to lead them in war. It appears that it was an ancient custom to have a female singer entertain warriors preparing for battle with hymns praising the virtues of courage and bravery. Only then did the warriors descend from the village plateau (Mt. Tabor?) to the Canaanite city gates in the valley.

Verse 11, 12, 13 could be rearranged for ease of understanding, as follows:

בין משאבים שם יתנו צדקות יהוה צדקת פרזנו בישראל
עורי עורי דבורה עורי עורי דברי-שיר
קום ברק ושבה שביך בן-אבינעם
אז ירדו לשערים עם-יהוה
אז ירד שריד לאדירים עם יהוה ירד לי בגבורים:

Verse 13. Remnants of the nobles. Apparently, many Israelite nobles have died in past battles or have been subdues and assimilated with the Canaanites. MT has "the people of Yahweh descended for me among the mighty" but "for me" is a bit difficult to understand since they are not doing it for Deborah. Most modern translations agree that it should be "for him" referring to Yahweh.

Verse 14. The MT has "Ephraim has its roots in Amalek". This is almost certainly a currupt text. Not only do we not find Ephraim to have its roots in Amalek but this has no relevance at all to the poem. It seems that Amalek stand for emeq (valley) which word is mentioned again in verse 15. The Hebrew word for "root" is a bit harder to decipher. I believe that it stands for "sarim" (princes) just like the Issachar princes are mentioned in the following verse.

Verse 15. The second Issachar has been amended to Naphtali. This is the PCB (Peake's Bible Commentary) suggestion and I accpet it tentatively. The problem with Issachar is that he is already mentioned as going with Deborah. Indeed, Deborah was from the Issachar tribe and Baraq was from Naphtali and so it seems natural that Naphtali follow on Naptali's heels just as Issachar warriors are following Deborah's leadership.

Verse 16. "among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart" is the NRSV translation. Unfortunately this makes little sense to me. Furthermore, this phrase is mentioned twice and in the first instance it is "choqeqei leb", not "chiqerei leb" and choqeq relates to someone who wields a staff, a militray commander or lawgiver. Indeed, the word "choqeq/mechoqeq" as such is mentioned in both the Blessing of Jacob (...the marshall's staff from between Judah's legs) and the blessing of Moses (there the commander's inheritence is reserved). Accordingly, and in light of our interpretation of the additional occurrence of this root in verse 9, I believe that both phrases shoul read "choqeqei leb" and the meaning is "couragous commanders".

Verse 19. Note how the phrase "on the waters of Megiddo" is a new clause. This is suggested first and foremost by the neat symmetry of Hebrew poetry (the first clause of this verse should be of roughly equal length to the second clause). Secondly, why the expression "over the waters of Megiddo"? It should say simply "the canaanite kings fought alongside Taanach and Megiddo". Thirdly, what is the significance of not taking "betsa'", which means unjustified gain; how and why would unjust gain be expected here? Under our interpretation all this is well understood.
Verse 20. The stars are fighting. This verse seems to say that the stars are fighting against Sisera, not with Sisera, as the Canaanites of the previous verse are doing. However, the question of how the stars contributed to Sisera's defeat beckons. Is it possible that it was thought that the stars produced rain and so the marsh, previously attributed to clouds (verse 4), is now being attributed to the stars? We don't know for sure the meaning of this. As I said, this is an extremely ancient poem and this verse might depend on some ancient belief or common idiom that we have since completely forgotten.

Verse 22. My soul trampled with power. I am convinced that this clause should belong to the following verse. As it stands in most translations the reader is left wondering what its connection with verse 21 is? Its connection with verse 22 is perhaps better understood, thus: after the Qishon riverbed became marshy, the soul of Deborah (representing the sole of Israel as a whole) continued to march on pursuing the Canaanites, thus allowing the Israelites to "catch up" with the speed of the Canaanite horses and then perhaps disable them with arches. It seems that horses and chariots are more severely affected by marshes than foot soldiers. This is also evident in the J "crossing of the red sea" episode (See ex 14:25).

Verse 30. This verse could be divided in two. Note the parallelism between the first caluse and the second. In the first clause, Sisera's mother is imagining how Sisera is appropriating for himself "manly" spoil: one or two girls. In the second clause she is imagining what Sisera will be bringing home for her: one or two dyed and embroidered garments.

ספר שופטים פרק יז
א וַיְהִי-אִישׁ מֵהַר-אֶפְרָיִם וּשְׁמוֹ מִיכָיְהוּ: ב וַיֹּאמֶר לְאִמּוֹ אֶלֶף וּמֵאָה הַכֶּסֶף אֲשֶׁר לֻקַּח-לָךְ וְאַתְּי ]וְאַתְּ[ אָלִית וְגַם אָמַרְתְּ בְּאָזְנַי הִנֵּה-הַכֶּסֶף אִתִּי אֲנִי לְקַחְתִּיו וַתֹּאמֶר אִמּוֹ בָּרוּךְ בְּנִי לַיהֹוָה: ג וַיָּשֶׁב אֶת-אֶלֶף-וּמֵאָה הַכֶּסֶף לְאִמּוֹ וַתֹּאמֶר אִמּוֹ הַקְדֵּשׁ הִקְדַּשְׁתִּי אֶת-הַכֶּסֶף לַיהֹוָה מִיָּדִי לִבְנִי לַעֲשֹוֹת פֶּסֶל וּמַסֵּכָה וְעַתָּה אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ לָךְ: ד וַיָּשֶׁב אֶת-הַכֶּסֶף לְאִמּוֹ וַתִּקַּח אִמּוֹ מָאתַיִם כֶּסֶף וַתִּתְּנֵהוּ לַצּוֹרֵף וַיַּעֲשֵֹהוּ פֶּסֶל וּמַסֵּכָה וַיְהִי בְּבֵית מִיכָיְהוּ:
ה וְהָאִישׁ מִיכָה לוֹ בֵּית אֱלֹהִים וַיַּעַשֹ אֵפוֹד וּתְרָפִים וַיְמַלֵּא אֶת-יַד אַחַד מִבָּנָיו וַיְהִי-לוֹ לְכֹהֵן: ו בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְֹרָאֵל אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶֹה: ז וַיְהִי-נַעַר מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה מִמִּשְׁפַּחַת יְהוּדָה וְהוּא לֵוִי וְהוּא גָר-שָׁם: ח וַיֵּלֶךְ הָאִישׁ מֵהָעִיר מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה לָגוּר בַּאֲשֶׁר יִמְצָא וַיָּבֹא הַר-אֶפְרַיִם עַד-בֵּית מִיכָה לַעֲשֹוֹת דַּרְכּוֹ: ט וַיֹּאמֶר-לוֹ מִיכָה מֵאַיִן תָּבוֹא וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָיו לֵוִי אָנֹכִי מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה וְאָנֹכִי הֹלֵךְ לָגוּר בַּאֲשֶׁר אֶמְצָא: י וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ מִיכָה שְׁבָה עִמָּדִי וֶהְיֵה-לִי לְאָב וּלְכֹהֵן וְאָנֹכִי אֶתֶּן-לְךָ עֲשֶֹרֶת כֶּסֶף לַיָּמִים וְעֵרֶךְ בְּגָדִים וּמִחְיָתֶךָ וַיֵּלֶךְ הַלֵּוִי: יא וַיּוֹאֶל הַלֵּוִי לָשֶׁבֶת אֶת-הָאִישׁ וַיְהִי הַנַּעַר לוֹ כְּאַחַד מִבָּנָיו: יב וַיְמַלֵּא מִיכָה אֶת-יַד הַלֵּוִי וַיְהִי-לוֹ הַנַּעַר לְכֹהֵן וַיְהִי בְּבֵית מִיכָה: יג וַיֹּאמֶר מִיכָה עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי-יֵיטִיב יְהֹוָה לִי כִּי הָיָה-לִי הַלֵּוִי לְכֹהֵן:
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ספר שופטים פרק יח
א בַּיָמִים הָהֵם אֵין מֶלֶךְ בְּיִשְֹרָאֵל וּבַיָּמִים הָהֵם שֵׁבֶט הַדָּנִי מְבַקֶּשׁ-לוֹ נַחֲלָה לָשֶׁבֶת כִּי לֹא-נָפְלָה לּוֹ עַד-הַיּוֹם הַהוּא בְּתוֹךְ-שִׁבְטֵי יִשְֹרָאֵל בְּנַחֲלָה: ב וַיִּשְׁלְחוּ בְנֵי-דָן מִמִּשְׁפַּחְתָּם חֲמִשָּׁה אֲנָשִׁים מִקְצוֹתָם אֲנָשִׁים בְּנֵי-חַיִל מִצָּרְעָה וּמֵאֶשְׁתָּאֹל לְרַגֵּל אֶת-הָאָרֶץ וּלְחָקְרָהּ וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֲלֵהֶם לְכוּ חִקְרוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ וַיָּבֹאוּ הַר-אֶפְרַיִם עַד-בֵּית מִיכָה וַיָּלִינוּ שָׁם: ג הֵמָּה עִם-בֵּית מִיכָה וְהֵמָּה הִכִּירוּ אֶת-קוֹל הַנַּעַר הַלֵּוִי וַיָּסוּרוּ שָׁם וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ מִי-הֱבִיאֲךָ הֲלֹם וּמָה-אַתָּה עֹשֶֹה בָּזֶה וּמַה-לְּךָ פֹה: ד וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם כָּזֹה וְכָזֶה עָשָֹה לִי מִיכָה וַיִּשְֹכְּרֵנִי וָאֱהִי-לוֹ לְכֹהֵן: ה וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ שְׁאַל-נָא בֵאלֹהִים וְנֵדְעָה הֲתַצְלִיחַ דַּרְכֵּנוּ אֲשֶׁר אֲנַחְנוּ הֹלְכִים עָלֶיהָ: ו וַיֹּאמֶר לָהֶם הַכֹּהֵן לְכוּ לְשָׁלוֹם נֹכַח יְהֹוָה דַּרְכְּכֶם אֲשֶׁר תֵּלְכוּ-בָהּ: ז וַיֵּלְכוּ חֲמֵשֶׁת הָאֲנָשִׁים וַיָּבֹאוּ לָיְשָׁה וַיִּרְאוּ אֶת-הָעָם אֲשֶׁר-בְּקִרְבָּהּ יוֹשֶׁבֶת-לָבֶטַח כְּמִשְׁפַּט צִדֹנִים שֹׁקֵט וּבֹטֵחַ וְאֵין-מַכְלִים דָּבָר בָּאָרֶץ יוֹרֵשׁ עֶצֶר וּרְחֹקִים הֵמָּה מִצִּדֹנִים וְדָבָר אֵין-לָהֶם עִם-אָדָם: ח וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל-אֲחֵיהֶם צָרְעָה וְאֶשְׁתָּאֹל וַיֹּאמְרוּ לָהֶם אֲחֵיהֶם מָה אַתֶּם: ט וַיֹּאמְרוּ קוּמָה וְנַעֲלֶה עֲלֵיהֶם כִּי רָאִינוּ אֶת-הָאָרֶץ וְהִנֵּה טוֹבָה מְאֹד וְאַתֶּם מַחְשִׁים אַל-תֵּעָצְלוּ לָלֶכֶת לָבֹא לָרֶשֶׁת אֶת-הָאָרֶץ: י כְּבֹאֲכֶם תָּבֹאוּ אֶל-עַם בֹּטֵחַ וְהָאָרֶץ רַחֲבַת יָדַיִם כִּי-נְתָנָהּ אֱלֹהִים בְּיֶדְכֶם מָקוֹם אֲשֶׁר אֵין-שָׁם מַחְסוֹר כָּל-דָּבָר אֲשֶׁר בָּאָרֶץ: יא וַיִּסְעוּ מִשָּׁם מִמִּשְׁפַּחַת הַדָּנִי מִצָּרְעָה וּמֵאֶשְׁתָּאֹל שֵׁשׁ-מֵאוֹת אִישׁ חָגוּר כְּלֵי מִלְחָמָה: יב וַיַּעֲלוּ וַיַּחֲנוּ בְּקִרְיַת יְעָרִים בִּיהוּדָה עַל-כֵּן קָרְאוּ לַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא מַחֲנֵה-דָן עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה הִנֵּה אַחֲרֵי קִרְיַת יְעָרִים: יג וַיַּעַבְרוּ מִשָּׁם הַר-אֶפְרָיִם וַיָּבֹאוּ עַד-בֵּית מִיכָה: יד וַיַּעֲנוּ חֲמֵשֶׁת הָאֲנָשִׁים הַהֹלְכִים לְרַגֵּל אֶת-הָאָרֶץ לַיִשׁ וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל-אֲחֵיהֶם הַיְדַעְתֶּם כִּי יֵשׁ בַּבָּתִּים הָאֵלֶּה אֵפוֹד וּתְרָפִים וּפֶסֶל וּמַסֵּכָה וְעַתָּה דְּעוּ מַה-תַּעֲשֹוּ: טו וַיָּסוּרוּ שָׁמָּה וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל-בֵּית-הַנַּעַר הַלֵּוִי בֵּית מִיכָה וַיִּשְׁאֲלוּ-לוֹ לְשָׁלוֹם: טז וְשֵׁשׁ-מֵאוֹת אִישׁ חֲגוּרִים כְּלֵי מִלְחַמְתָּם נִצָּבִים פֶּתַח הַשָּׁעַר אֲשֶׁר מִבְּנֵי-דָן: יז וַיַּעֲלוּ חֲמֵשֶׁת הָאֲנָשִׁים הַהֹלְכִים לְרַגֵּל אֶת-הָאָרֶץ בָּאוּ שָׁמָּה לָקְחוּ אֶת-הַפֶּסֶל וְאֶת-הָאֵפוֹד וְאֶת-הַתְּרָפִים וְאֶת-הַמַּסֵּכָה וְהַכֹּהֵן נִצָּב פֶּתַח הַשַּׁעַר וְשֵׁשׁ-מֵאוֹת הָאִישׁ הֶחָגוּר כְּלֵי הַמִּלְחָמָה: יח וְאֵלֶּה בָּאוּ בֵּית מִיכָה וַיִּקְחוּ אֶת-פֶּסֶל הָאֵפוֹד וְאֶת-הַתְּרָפִים וְאֶת-הַמַּסֵּכָה וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם הַכֹּהֵן מָה אַתֶּם עֹשִֹים: יט וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ הַחֲרֵשׁ שִֹים-יָדְךָ עַל-פִּיךָ וְלֵךְ עִמָּנוּ וֶהְיֵה-לָנוּ לְאָב וּלְכֹהֵן הֲטוֹב הֱיוֹתְךָ כֹהֵן לְבֵית אִישׁ אֶחָד אוֹ הֱיוֹתְךָ כֹהֵן לְשֵׁבֶט וּלְמִשְׁפָּחָה בְּיִשְֹרָאֵל: כ וַיִּיטַב לֵב הַכֹּהֵן וַיִּקַּח אֶת-הָאֵפוֹד וְאֶת-הַתְּרָפִים וְאֶת-הַפָּסֶל וַיָּבֹא בְּקֶרֶב הָעָם: כא וַיִּפְנוּ וַיֵּלֵכוּ וַיָּשִֹימוּ אֶת-הַטַּף וְאֶת-הַמִּקְנֶה וְאֶת-הַכְּבוּדָּה לִפְנֵיהֶם: כב הֵמָּה הִרְחִיקוּ מִבֵּית מִיכָה וְהָאֲנָשִׁים אֲשֶׁר בַּבָּתִּים אֲשֶׁר עִם-בֵּית מִיכָה נִזְעֲקוּ וַיַּדְבִּיקוּ אֶת-בְּנֵי-דָן: כג וַיִּקְרְאוּ אֶל-בְּנֵי-דָן וַיַּסֵּבּוּ פְּנֵיהֶם וַיֹּאמְרוּ לְמִיכָה מַה-לְּךָ כִּי נִזְעָקְתָּ: כד וַיֹּאמֶר אֶת-אֱלֹהַי אֲשֶׁר-עָשִֹיתִי לְקַחְתֶּם וְאֶת-הַכֹּהֵן וַתֵּלְכוּ וּמַה-לִּי עוֹד וּמַה-זֶּה תֹּאמְרוּ אֵלַי מַה-לָּךְ: כה וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו בְּנֵי-דָן אַל-תַּשְׁמַע קוֹלְךָ עִמָּנוּ פֶּן-יִפְגְּעוּ בָכֶם אֲנָשִׁים מָרֵי נֶפֶשׁ וְאָסַפְתָּה נַפְשְׁךָ וְנֶפֶשׁ בֵּיתֶךָ: כו וַיֵּלְכוּ בְנֵי-דָן לְדַרְכָּם וַיַּרְא מִיכָה כִּי-חֲזָקִים הֵמָּה מִמֶּנּוּ וַיִּפֶן וַיָּשָׁב אֶל-בֵּיתוֹ: כז וְהֵמָּה לָקְחוּ אֵת אֲשֶׁר-עָשָֹה מִיכָה וְאֶת-הַכֹּהֵן אֲשֶׁר הָיָה-לוֹ וַיָּבֹאוּ עַל-לַיִשׁ עַל-עַם שֹׁקֵט וּבֹטֵחַ וַיַּכּוּ אוֹתָם לְפִי-חָרֶב וְאֶת-הָעִיר שָֹרְפוּ בָאֵשׁ: כח וְאֵין מַצִּיל כִּי רְחוֹקָה-הִיא מִצִּידוֹן וְדָבָר אֵין-לָהֶם עִם-אָדָם וְהִיא בָּעֵמֶק אֲשֶׁר לְבֵית-רְחוֹב וַיִּבְנוּ אֶת-הָעִיר וַיֵּשְׁבוּ בָהּ: כט וַיִּקְרְאוּ שֵׁם-הָעִיר דָּן בְּשֵׁם דָּן אֲבִיהֶם אֲשֶׁר יוּלַּד לְיִשְֹרָאֵל וְאוּלָם לַיִשׁ שֵׁם-הָעִיר לָרִאשֹׁנָה: ל וַיָּקִימוּ לָהֶם בְּנֵי-דָן אֶת-הַפָּסֶל וִיהוֹנָתָן בֶּן-גֵּרְשֹׁם בֶּן-מְנַשֶּׁה הוּא וּבָנָיו הָיוּ כֹהֲנִים לְשֵׁבֶט הַדָּנִי עַד-יוֹם גְּלוֹת הָאָרֶץ: לא וַיָּשִֹימוּ לָהֶם אֶת-פֶּסֶל מִיכָה אֲשֶׁר עָשָֹה כָּל-יְמֵי הֱיוֹת בֵּית-הָאֱלֹהִים בְּשִׁלֹה:
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א וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֵוִי וַיִּקַּח אֶת-בַּת-לֵוִי: ב וַתַּהַר הָאִשָּׁה וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן וַתֵּרֶא אֹתוֹ כִּי-טוֹב הוּא וַתִּצְפְּנֵהוּ שְׁלֹשָׁה יְרָחִים: ג וְלֹא-יָכְלָה עוֹד הַצְּפִינוֹ וַתִּקַּח-לוֹ תֵּבַת גֹּמֶא וַתַּחְמְרָה בַחֵמָר וּבַזָּפֶת וַתָּשֶֹם בָּהּ אֶת-הַיֶּלֶד וַתָּשֶֹם בַּסּוּף עַל-שְֹפַת הַיְאֹר: ד וַתֵּתַצַּב אֲחֹתוֹ מֵרָחֹק לְדֵעָה מַה-יֵּעָשֶֹה לוֹ: ה וַתֵּרֶד בַּת-פַּרְעֹה לִרְחֹץ עַל-הַיְאֹר וְנַעֲרֹתֶיהָ הֹלְכֹת עַל-יַד הַיְאֹר וַתֵּרֶא אֶת-הַתֵּבָה בְּתוֹךְ הַסּוּף וַתִּשְׁלַח אֶת-אֲמָתָהּ וַתִּקָּחֶהָ: ו וַתִּפְתַּח וַתִּרְאֵהוּ אֶת-הַיֶּלֶד וְהִנֵּה-נַעַר בֹּכֶה וַתַּחְמֹל עָלָיו וַתֹּאמֶר מִיַּלְדֵי הָעִבְרִים זֶה: ז וַתֹּאמֶר אֲחֹתוֹ אֶל-בַּת-פַּרְעֹה הַאֵלֵךְ וְקָרָאתִי לָךְ אִשָּׁה מֵינֶקֶת מִן הָעִבְרִיֹּת וְתֵינִק לָךְ אֶת-הַיָּלֶד: ח וַתֹּאמֶר-לָהּ בַּת-פַּרְעֹה לֵכִי וַתֵּלֶךְ הָעַלְמָה וַתִּקְרָא אֶת-אֵם הַיָּלֶד: ט וַתֹּאמֶר לָהּ בַּת-פַּרְעֹה הֵילִיכִי אֶת-הַיֶּלֶד הַזֶּה וְהֵינִקִהוּ לִי וַאֲנִי אֶתֵּן אֶת-שְֹכָרֵךְ וַתִּקַּח הָאִשָּׁה הַיֶּלֶד וַתְּנִיקֵהוּ: י וַיִּגְדַּל הַיֶּלֶד וַתְּבִאֵהוּ לְבַת-פַּרְעֹה וַיְהִי-לָהּ לְבֵן וַתִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ מֹשֶׁה וַתֹּאמֶר כִּי מִן-הַמַּיִם מְשִׁיתִהוּ: ]שלישי[ יא וַיְהִי בַּיָּמִים הָהֵם וַיִּגְדַּל מֹשֶׁה וַיֵּצֵא אֶל-אֶחָיו וַיַּרְא בְּסִבְלֹתָם וַיַּרְא אִישׁ מִצְרִי מַכֶּה אִישׁ-עִבְרִי מֵאֶחָיו: יב וַיִּפֶן כֹּה וָכֹה וַיַּרְא כִּי אֵין אִישׁ וַיַּךְ אֶת-הַמִּצְרִי וַיִּטְמְנֵהוּ בַּחוֹל: יג וַיֵּצֵא בַּיּוֹם הַשֵּׁנִי וְהִנֵּה שְׁנֵי-אֲנָשִׁים עִבְרִים נִצִּים וַיֹּאמֶר לָרָשָׁע לָמָּה תַכֶּה רֵעֶךָ: יד וַיֹּאמֶר מִי שָֹמְךָ לְאִישׁ שַֹר וְשֹׁפֵט עָלֵינוּ הַלְהָרְגֵנִי אַתָּה אֹמֵר כַּאֲשֶׁר הָרַגְתָּ אֶת-הַמִּצְרִי וַיִּירָא מֹשֶׁה וַיֹּאמַר אָכֵן נוֹדַע הַדָּבָר: טו וַיִּשְׁמַע פַּרְעֹה אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה וַיְבַקֵּשׁ לַהֲרֹג אֶת-מֹשֶׁה וַיִּבְרַח מֹשֶׁה מִפְּנֵי פַרְעֹה וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּאֶרֶץ-מִדְיָן וַיֵּשֶׁב עַל-הַבְּאֵר: טז וּלְכֹהֵן מִדְיָן שֶׁבַע בָּנוֹת וַתָּבֹאנָה וַתִּדְלֶנָה וַתְּמַלֶּאנָה אֶת-הָרְהָטִים לְהַשְׁקוֹת צֹאן אֲבִיהֶן: יז וַיָּבֹאוּ הָרֹעִים וַיְגָרֲשׁוּם וַיָּקָם מֹשֶׁה וַיּוֹשִׁעָן וַיַּשְׁקְ אֶת-צֹאנָם: יח וַתָּבֹאנָה אֶל-רְעוּאֵל אֲבִיהֶן וַיֹּאמֶר מַדּוּעַ מִהַרְתֶּן בֹּא הַיּוֹם: יט וַתֹּאמַרְן ָ אִישׁ מִצְרִי הִצִּילָנוּ מִיַּד הָרֹעִים וְגַם-דָּלֹה דָלָה לָנוּ וַיַּשְׁקְ אֶת-הַצֹּאן: כ וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל-בְּנֹתָיו וְאַיּוֹ לָמָּה זֶּה עֲזַבְתֶּן אֶת-הָאִישׁ קִרְאֶן לוֹ וְיֹאכַל לָחֶם: כא וַיּוֹאֶל מֹשֶׁה לָשֶׁבֶת אֶת-הָאִישׁ וַיִּתֵּן אֶת-צִפֹּרָה בִתּוֹ לְמֹשֶׁה: כב וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ גֵּרְשֹׁם כִּי אָמַר גֵּר הָיִיתִי בְּאֶרֶץ נָכְרִיָּה: פ
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ספר שמות פרק יח
]פרשת יתרו[ א וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ כֹהֵן מִדְיָן חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר עָשָֹה אֱלֹהִים לְמֹשֶׁה וּלְיִשְֹרָאֵל עַמּוֹ כִּי-הוֹצִיא יְהוָֹה אֶת-יִשְֹרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָיִם: ב וַיִּקַּח יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֶת-צִפֹּרָה אֵשֶׁת מֹשֶׁה אַחַר שִׁלּוּחֶיהָ: ג וְאֵת שְׁנֵי בָנֶיהָ אֲשֶׁר שֵׁם הָאֶחָד גֵּרְשֹׁם כִּי אָמַר גֵּר הָיִיתִי בְּאֶרֶץ נָכְרִיָּה: ד וְשֵׁם הָאֶחָד אֱלִיעֶזֶר כִּי-אֱלֹהֵי אָבִי בְּעֶזְרִי וַיַּצִּלֵנִי מֵחֶרֶב פַּרְעֹה: ה וַיָּבֹא יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה וּבָנָיו וְאִשְׁתּוֹ אֶל-מֹשֶׁה אֶל-הַמִּדְבָּר אֲשֶׁר-הוּא חֹנֶה שָׁם הַר הָאֱלֹהִים: ו וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל-מֹשֶׁה אֲנִי חֹתֶנְךָ יִתְרוֹ בָּא אֵלֶיךָ וְאִשְׁתְּךָ וּשְׁנֵי בָנֶיהָ עִמָּהּ: ז וַיֵּצֵא מֹשֶׁה לִקְרַאת חֹתְנוֹ וַיִּשְׁתַּחוּ וַיִּשַּׁק-לוֹ וַיִּשְׁאֲלוּ אִישׁ-לְרֵעֵהוּ לְשָׁלוֹם וַיָּבֹאוּ הָאֹהֱלָה: ח וַיְסַפֵּר מֹשֶׁה לְחֹתְנוֹ אֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר עָשָֹה יְהוָֹה לְפַרְעֹה וּלְמִצְרַיִם עַל אוֹדֹת יִשְֹרָאֵל אֵת כָּל-הַתְּלָאָה אֲשֶׁר מְצָאָתַם בַּדֶּרֶךְ וַיַּצִּלֵם יְהוָֹה: ט וַיִּחַדְּ יִתְרוֹ עַל כָּל-הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶׁר-עָשָֹה יְהוָֹה לְיִשְֹרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר הִצִּילוֹ מִיַּד מִצְרָיִם: י וַיֹּאמֶר יִתְרוֹ בָּרוּךְ יְהֹוָה אֲשֶׁר הִצִּיל אֶתְכֶם מִיַּד מִצְרַיִם וּמִיַּד פַּרְעֹה אֲשֶׁר הִצִּיל אֶת-הָעָם מִתַּחַת יַד-מִצְרָיִם: יא עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי-גָדוֹל יְהוָֹה מִכָּל-הָאֱלֹהִים כִּי בַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר זָדוּ עֲלֵיהֶם: יב וַיִּקַּח יִתְרוֹ חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה עֹלָה וּזְבָחִים לֵאלֹהִים וַיָּבֹא אַהֲרֹן וְכֹל זִקְנֵי יִשְֹרָאֵל לֶאֱכָל-לֶחֶם עִם-חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה לִפְנֵי הָאֱלֹהִים: ]שני[ יג וַיְהִי מִמָּחֳרָת וַיֵּשֶׁב מֹשֶׁה לִשְׁפֹּט אֶת-הָעָם וַיַּעֲמֹד הָעָם עַל-מֹשֶׁה מִן-הַבֹּקֶר עַד-הָעָרֶב: יד וַיַּרְא חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵת כָּל-אֲשֶׁר-הוּא עֹשֶֹה לָעָם וַיֹּאמֶר מָה-הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עֹשֶֹה לָעָם מַדּוּעַ אַתָּה יוֹשֵׁב לְבַדֶּךָ וְכָל-הָעָם נִצָּב עָלֶיךָ מִן-בֹּקֶר עַד-עָרֶב: טו וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה לְחֹתְנוֹ כִּי-יָבֹא אֵלַי הָעָם לִדְרשׁ אֱלֹהִים: טז כִּי-יִהְיֶה לָהֶם דָּבָר בָּא אֵלַי וְשָׁפַטְתִּי בֵּין אִישׁ וּבֵין רֵעֵהוּ וְהוֹדַעְתִּי אֶת-חֻקֵּי הָאֱלֹהִים וְאֶת-תּוֹרֹתָיו: יז וַיֹּאמֶר חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵלָיו לֹא-טוֹב הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה עֹשֶֹה: יח נָבֹל תִּבֹּל גַּם-אַתָּה גַּם-הָעָם הַזֶּה אֲשֶׁר עִמָּךְ כִּי-כָבֵד מִמְּךָ הַדָּבָר לֹא-תוּכַל עֲשֹהוּ לְבַדֶּךָ: יט עַתָּה שְׁמַע בְּקֹלִי אִיעָצְךָ וִיהִי אֱלֹהִים עִמָּךְ הֱיֵה אַתָּה לָעָם מוּל הָאֱלֹהִים וְהֵבֵאתָ אַתָּה אֶת-הַדְּבָרִים אֶל-הָאֱלֹהִים: כ וְהִזְהַרְתָּה אֶתְהֶם אֶת-הַחֻקִּים וְאֶת-הַתּוֹרֹת וְהוֹדַעְתָּ לָהֶם אֶת-הַדֶּרֶךְ יֵלְכוּ בָהּ וְאֶת-הַמַּעֲשֶֹה אֲשֶׁר יַעֲשֹוּן: כא וְאַתָּה תֶחֱזֶה מִכָּל-הָעָם אַנְשֵׁי-חַיִל יִרְאֵי אֱלֹהִים אַנְשֵׁי אֱמֶת שֹֹנְאֵי בָצַע וְשַֹמְתָּ עֲלֵהֶם שָֹרֵי אֲלָפִים שָֹרֵי מֵאוֹת שָֹרֵי חֲמִשִּׁים וְשָֹרֵי עֲשָֹרֹת: כב וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת-הָעָם בְּכָל-עֵת וְהָיָה כָּל-הַדָּבָר הַגָּדֹל יָבִיאוּ אֵלֶיךָ וְכָל-הַדָּבָר הַקָּטֹן יִשְׁפְּטוּ-הֵם וְהָקֵל מֵעָלֶיךָ וְנָשְֹאוּ אִתָּךְ: כג אִם אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה תַּעֲשֶֹה וְצִוְּךָ אֱלֹהִים וְיָכָלְתָּ עֲמֹד וְגַם כָּל-הָעָם הַזֶּה עַל-מְקֹמוֹ יָבֹא בְשָׁלוֹם: ]שלישי[ כד וַיִּשְׁמַע מֹשֶׁה לְקוֹל חֹתְנוֹ וַיַּעַשֹ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר אָמָר: כה וַיִּבְחַר מֹשֶׁה אַנְשֵׁי-חַיִל מִכָּל-יִשְֹרָאֵל וַיִּתֵּן אֹתָם רָאשִׁים עַל-הָעָם שָֹרֵי אֲלָפִים שָֹרֵי מֵאוֹת שָֹרֵי חֲמִשִּׁים וְשָֹרֵי עֲשָֹרֹת: כו וְשָׁפְטוּ אֶת-הָעָם בְּכָל-עֵת אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַקָּשֶׁה יְבִיאוּן אֶל-מֹשֶׁה וְכָל-הַדָּבָר הַקָּטֹן יִשְׁפּוּטוּ הֵם: כז וַיְשַׁלַּח מֹשֶׁה אֶת-חֹתְנוֹ וַיֵּלֶךְ לוֹ אֶל-אַרְצוֹ: פ
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א וַיֵּלֶךְ אִישׁ מִבֵּית לֵוִי וַיִּקַּח אֶת-בַּת-לֵוִי:
ח וַיֵּלֶךְ הָאִישׁ מֵהָעִיר מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה ... וַיֵּלֶךְ הַלֵּוִי:
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טז וּלְכֹהֵן מִדְיָן שֶׁבַע בָּנוֹת... יח וַתָּבֹאנָה אֶל-רְעוּאֵל אֲבִיהֶן
ה וְהָאִישׁ מִיכָה לוֹ בֵּית אֱלֹהִים וַיַּעַשֹ אֵפוֹד וּתְרָפִים וַיְמַלֵּא אֶת-יַד אַחַד מִבָּנָיו וַיְהִי-לוֹ לְכֹהֵן:
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כ וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל-בְּנֹתָיו וְאַיּוֹ לָמָּה זֶּה עֲזַבְתֶּן אֶת-הָאִישׁ קִרְאֶן לוֹ וְיֹאכַל לָחֶם:
י וַיֹּאמֶר לוֹ מִיכָה שְׁבָה עִמָּדִי וֶהְיֵה-לִי לְאָב וּלְכֹהֵן וְאָנֹכִי אֶתֶּן-לְךָ עֲשֶֹרֶת כֶּסֶף לַיָּמִים וְעֵרֶךְ בְּגָדִים וּמִחְיָתֶךָ וַיֵּלֶךְ הַלֵּוִי:
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כא וַיּוֹאֶל מֹשֶׁה לָשֶׁבֶת אֶת-הָאִישׁ וַיִּתֵּן אֶת-צִפֹּרָה בִתּוֹ לְמֹשֶׁה:
יא וַיּוֹאֶל הַלֵּוִי לָשֶׁבֶת אֶת-הָאִישׁ וַיְהִי הַנַּעַר לוֹ כְּאַחַד מִבָּנָיו:
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י וַיֹּאמֶר יִתְרוֹ ... עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי-גָדוֹל יְהוָֹה מִכָּל-הָאֱלֹהִים כִּי בַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר זָדוּ עֲלֵיהֶם:
יג וַיֹּאמֶר מִיכָה עַתָּה יָדַעְתִּי כִּי-יֵיטִיב יְהֹוָה לִי כִּי הָיָה-לִי הַלֵּוִי לְכֹהֵן:
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כב וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן וַיִּקְרָא אֶת-שְׁמוֹ גֵּרְשֹׁם כִּי אָמַר גֵּר הָיִיתִי בְּאֶרֶץ נָכְרִיָּה: פ
ז וַיְהִי-נַעַר מִבֵּית לֶחֶם יְהוּדָה מִמִּשְׁפַּחַת יְהוּדָה וְהוּא לֵוִי וְהוּא גָר-שָׁם: ... וִיהוֹנָתָן בֶּן-גֵּרְשֹׁם בֶּן-מְנַשֶּׁה הוּא וּבָנָיו הָיוּ כֹהֲנִים לְשֵׁבֶט הַדָּנִי עַד-יוֹם גְּלוֹת הָאָרֶץ
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Note the similarities in terminology between the J account of Moses’ encounter with Reuel and his his marriage to Ziporah and the J account of the Levite’s encounter with Micah and his appointment as a priest. Not only are parallel terms used, as pointed out above but the entire story basically has the same outline:

Moses’ father "goes" from "Bethlevi" to find a Levite wife. Gershom (or his son) "goes" from "Bethlehem" to find a dwelling place, a job and a wife. Bethlevi is probably a place name, for if it means a Levite family, then why make a point of the fact that the Levite man took a Levite woman? It was common practice to marry within the tribe and there would be no need to specify that. If Bethlevi is the name of a Levite village in Egypt, then the emphasis is that the man was not necessarily a Levite, which is precisely what the text alludes to in the Judges episode: the man who who founded the priesthood at Micah’s shrine and later at the Danite shrine, was from a Judahite family.

Moses meets a priest in Midian, Reuel. Gershom meets a priest in Mt. Ephraim, Micah. Both do not have any male heirs who are qualified to take over their priestly duties. Reuel does not have any sons; he needs a man to marry his daughter and take over his priestly functions. Micah seems to have had sons (Judges 17:11) but for some reason he prefers Gershom the "Levite" to serve in his temple. The expression that the Levite was treated "as one of his sons" may imply that he gave him one of his daughters (just like Reuel did to Moses) or it may mean that he granted him special inheritance privileges, usually reserved for biological sons.

Place of worship. In the Moses episode, it is "the mountain of God", also called Horeb, (according to E) or Seneh/Sinai (according to J) where Moses experiences a theophany. It is there that a religious revolution is initiated and the "ten articles of the covenant" are issued. According to P, a slew of religious objects are fashioned there: breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a girdle. In J most of these objects are not mentioned but the "ark of the covenant" is prominent and we can assume that there was also an "ephod" (which is mentioned by P) and Teraphim (which are small idols?). It seems that there was some dispute among the Levites whether sculpted (pesel) or molten (masecah) images should be allowed; Moses forbade them while Aaron allowed them. It seems highly likely that the Aaronite clan practice of allowing sculpted and molten images was the norm in the formative years of the Hebrews and if so, the Hebrews departed from Sinai with sculpted idols ("pesel") as well.

In the Gershom episode, it is the "house of micah" where a religious revolution is initiated in the North. The North had never before experienced the ministry of a Levite priest. We know that the Levite’s ministry was a novelty and it was considered more desirable than the Ephraimite native worship practices. We see this from the expression in Judges 17:13 "now I know that Yahweh will do good to me for I have acquired a Levite as priest". Micah, with the aid of his newly acquired Levite priest, creates the same objects that were most probably present in the Moses Sinai episode as well: Pesel, Ephod, and Teraphim.

Reuel invites Moses to "eat bread" and then gives him his daughter. Micah offers Gershom ten silvers per year, clothing and food and "treats him as one of his sons".

Moses is "content to dwell with the man". Likewise, the Levite is "content to dwell with the man". By the way, the expression "he was content (to dwell)" occurs only five times in the HB. This (Moses episode) is the only occurrence in the Pentateuch and these are the only two instances where the full phrase "he was content to dwell with the man" occur.

Jethro (in the E tradition, which is equivalent to Reuel in J) says "now I know that Yahweh..." Micah likewise says "now I know that Yahweh...". In both cases, these people are being first introduced to Yahwism and are favorably impressed.

In the Gershom-Micah episode, the Danites set our from Bethmicah in Mt. Ephraim and embark on a mission of conquest as soon as they adopt the new religion promulgated by the Levite. In the Moses-Sinai episode, Moses sets out from Sinai and prepares the Israelites for battle against the Cananites soon after he promulgates the new religion.

Moses has a son whom he names "Gershom" (this is, BTW, his only son in the J tradition). The Levite who emigrates from Bethlehem to Micah’s temple in Mt. Ephraim is also called Gershom (Judges 17:7). The word does not mean "he sojourned there" for two reasons. First, if the man was from a Judahite family, as stated in verse 7, then he would be a permanent resident in Judahite territory and so he wouldn’t be "sojourning" in Bethlehem (this is true even if you believe that Levi was already a distinct "tribe" by then. The levites were granted permanent villages as told in Deuteronomy and Joshua, so there would be no necessity for them to move about frequently). Secondly, the author puns the name "Gershom" on the fact that the man set out to "sojourn at whatever place he can find". This phrase is mentioned in both verse 7 and verse 9. Accordingly, this act is what caused him to be named so and he wasn’t named so previously. Finally, at the very end of the chapter (Judges 18:30), the verse states openly that Jonathan the son of Gershom the son of Moses, he and his sons, were Danite priests until the exile of the land. This is the only mention of Gershom the son of Moses outside the Pentateuch (and he’s only mentioned twice in the Pentateuch). The connection between this name and the "grshm" mentioned in 17:7 at the beginning of the episode is very suggesting.

The picture of what is going on here now clears up a bit. Apparently, the priest from Bethmicah did quite a bit of wandering before Micah took him in and perhaps afterwards as well. Naturally they called him "Gershom", which name was preserved by the Danites after he was transferred to their temple. He traced his ancestry to the legendary Moses who initiated Yahwism in the south, and he carried the yahwist gospel to the North. Naturally, therefore, the tradition developed that Moses had a son by that name and this tradition is reflected in Exodus 2:22 and Exodus 18:3 which are both ancient sources.

However, the priestly author changed things around. In P, Gershom is a son of Levi and a brother of Qehath who is the ancestor of Moses. Thus, not only is Gershom not a descendant of Moses, but he is not even an ancestor of Moses. Rather, he is Moses’s uncle and the eponym of a rival Levite clan who served in the second temple along with the clan of Qehath and Merrari. "gershom" (not the "gershon" spelling common in the priestly sections of the Pentateuch) as the son of Levi, is mentioned in 1chronicles 6:1 and 6:28, which makes it clear that P is referring to the same legendary figure mentioned in the JE sections in Exodus and Judges.

Why did the priestly author institute this new genealogy? It could be explained as follows:
In Solomon’s temple there were two "levite" priests, Sadoq and Abiathar. Sadoq traced his ancestry to Aaron and Abiathar to Moses. In those days, Moses and Aaron were the only two levite families and so if one were to write a genealogy of the Levi "tribe" it would be simply: Levi had two sons Aaron and Moses etc... When Adonijah feuded with Solomon over the takeover of the Davidic throne, Abiathar sided with Adonijah and Sadoq sided with Solomon. When Solomon won the throne, he banished Abiathar from the temple and Abiathar and his descendants NEVER recovered. This means that whereas the Mushites were a higher-esteemed Levite clan than the Aaronites up until the days of Solomon, by virtue of their descendency from the legendary lawgiver Moses, their superiority was now lost. The Deuteronomist (in the seventh century BCE) attempted to implement a new system that did not distinguish between any Levite clans when it came to temple priestly privileges but this system apparently failed. After the Israelites returned from exile in 537 BCE and the temple rebuilt in 515 BCE, a strict division of labor was established between the regular Levites and those who traced their ancestry from Aaron. Only Aaronites were allowed to perform the core priestly functions in the temple; other Levites were reduced to auxiliary temple work.

In light of all this, the Levite genealogy had to be reworked. If Gershom was the son of Moses, then the Aaronites would not be able prevent such an aristocratic class from serving in the temple! The solution? Separate Gershom from Moses and make him a distinct Levite clan. Furthermore, Even Qehath does not encompass all the Aaronites. Only the sons of Amram the son of Qehath are qualified to serve as priests. Now that Gershom is not descendant from Moses, Moses has left no heir and so there’s no need to accommodate any Levite families other than Aaron, who is the closest relative to Moses. In reality, the Gershomites and possibly the Merrarites and the other Qehathite families (such as Ishar, Hebron and Uziel) may have all considered themselves descendant of Moses before the Priestly revolution at the beginning of the second temple.

What is the connection between Senah and Sinai?

I believe that these two words have a single etymology. The word Seneh occurs five times in the story of the theophany of Moses and his commission by Yahweh (Exodus 3, from the J source). We know that this event took place in the vicinity of Midian, for in both the previous chapter (Ex 2:15) and the following chapter (Ex 4:19) Midian is mentioned. We can also assume that it is not very far from Egypt, since Moses is instructed to return to Egypt and ask Pharaoh to allow the Hebrews to celebrate a three-day festival for yahweh at that site. Naturally, if the Hebrews need to leave Egypt in order to celebrate the festival (for whatever reason), it would be reasonable for them to do so in the closest proximity to their homes. Thus, it seems that the Seneh of the J account was located somewhere in the northwest section of the Sinai peninsula.

However, recall, that the Seneh was not just the site where Moses received his first theophany and commission. In E, God says to Moses "when you extract the people from Egypt you shall serve God upon this mountain" (Ex 3:12), meaning that this was the very same site where the Israelites later built an altar and offered burnt-sacrifices and peace sacrifices (Ex 24:4-5) and also where the new law code promulgated by Moses (presumably the "covenant code") was introduced (Ex 24:7).

Admittedly. J does not mention any worship of Yahweh or the promulgation of the "ten articles of the covenant" in connection with the Seneh. However, Yahweh says to Moses "the ground you are standing on is holy ground" (Ex 3:5), which implies a permanent holiness, not tied to the presence of Yahweh there at the moment. The very fact that the Seneh burns and does not become consumed indicates the presence of Yahweh at the site, which is precisely what occurs in the J decalog (Ex 19:18). In J, the theophany at Seneh is a small taste of the big theophany Moses is to receive there later while all of Israel is witnessing it. For now, it is an angel of Yahweh (Ex 3:2) who reveals himself to him in the form of a flaming fire. Later, it will be the presence of Yahweh himself and the entire Mt. Sinai will be trembling and smoking like the smoke of a furnce (Ex 19:18) in the eyes of all the people (Ex 19:11).

The traditional translation of "seneh" is a bush. However, this word is only mentioned in the J narrative of Exodus 3 and in the blessing of Moses (deu 33:16). In the blessing of Moses, most scholars agree that it should be amended to "sinai". Note the connection of the verb "shakan" (dwell/rest) with Seneh both in Deuteronomy "the goodwill of he who dwells in Seneh" and with Sinai "the glory of Yahweh dwelled on Mt. Sinai" (Num 24:16). What, then, compells us to consider the Seneh of Ex 3, a bush? It should also be noted that Ex 3:2 does not introduce the Seneh properly; it refers to it as "the Seneh", as if it is already known to the reader.

It seems to me, that the Seneh of Ex 3 (J document) is indistinguishable from the Sinai in other parts of J. The original J text must have read something like this:

א וּמֹשֶׁה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת-צֹאן רעואל חֹתְנוֹ כֹּהֵן מִדְיָן וַיִּנְהַג אֶת-הַצֹּאן אַחַר הַמִּדְבָּר וַיָּבֹא אֶל-הַר סנה/סני:

Note how I changed the name of Moses’ father-in-law to be consistent with the J tradition of "Reuel" and the name of the mountain to follow the J tradition of "Sinai". Apparently, at some point, the spelling of the mountain’s name in some instances was changed from Seneh to Sinai or vice versa and this is the source for all the confusion. In fact, it is even possible that the very original text spelled the mountain with two consonants only: samech, nun. Later generations did not realize the connection between the Ex 3 chapter and other occurrences and for some reason thought the text was talking about a bush or some other object, not a mountain and they started spelling it differently. How does a mountain burn? Well, this question could be asked with regard to the Sinai theophany as well (Ex 19:18). In fact, accordinh to J, Yahweh constantly went before the Israelites with a fiery pillar at night (Ex 13:21-22) and so the question could be asked there as well: how does a pillar of fire burn continously without being consumed? And so we don’t need a "bush" in order to imagine a continuous fire. The original Seneh story held that a flame of fire (lehabath esh) was present at the center of Mt. Sinai (Heb. Mitoch haseneh ex 3:2) but the mountain was not being consumed.

May 3 2006

Last week I came up with the new theory about the early history of Israel. It occurred to me that Moses and Joshua did not rule over the same people in succession. Rather, they ruled over a different tribe or group of tribes altogether. Moses was a Levite and was associated with the southern "Le’ah tribes" and Joshua was an Ephraimite/Israelite and associated with the northern "Rachel tribes".

Central to our investigation is the question of the Levites origin. Unlike other tribes, the Levites did not inherit any land according to the Bible. P does make it clear that the Levites were granted 48 cities and even if we discredit this as non-historical or non-reflective of early tribal history, we still know that the Levites had some villages of their own, such as "Nob" the Priestly city (which was destroyed by Saul for supporting his enemy David) and Anathoth (which is where the priest Abiathar was banished by Solomon after he supported Adonijah and is also the birthplace of the prophet Jeremiah three centuries later). However, these were small villages scattered here and there without any strong foothold or political power over the surrounding region. In other words, the Levites did not have their own tribal political organization, their cities were not situated within a single bloc of land, and they did not engage in combat. They were politically and economically dependent upon the more powerful tribes of the region such as Judah and Ephraim. In one area they did hold a monopoly, however, and that was divination and priesthood.

Why do I mention all this? Because the Levites’ obscure origin and lack of a well-defined border in their land inheritance makes them a mysterious and enigmatic people. It is hard for us to really figure out where they came from and how they came to hold a monopoly over the priesthood in later years. In fact it is not even clear that they were a "tribe" in the classical sense. It is entirely possible that any priest was called a Levite in early days and only later was the office of passed on within the blood line and thus confined to existing Levites. This, in fact, is my favorite opinion and there is important evidence for this in the book of Judges (17:7) "Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he sojourned there". How is it possible for a Judahite to be a Levite? (tribal affiliations were always patrimonial, so that a person belonged to the tribe of his father and ONLY to that tribe). Later in Judges 19, in the concubine murder story, it is a Levite from the far end (northern end that is) of Mount Ephraim who takes a concubine from Bethlehem, Judah. What is the Levite doing in the far end of Mt. Ephraim? and why is he going all the way to Bethlehem, Judah to get a concubine?

It seems to me that a "Levite" originally did not denote a tribal affiliation. Rather, it meant simply a person who is proficient at divination, priesthood and communication with God. It designated a profession, not a blood-line. Furthermore, as you see from the Pesel Micah story and the Levite Concubine-Gibeah story, the Levites were somehow associated with the town of Bethlehem (note that these are the only two instances of Levite in the book of Judges) in Judah. This demonstrates that the Levites were in early tribal history very closely connected with the Judahites and according to my theory they were actually Judahites as indicated by the verse in Judges 17:7 above. Their origin can be explained very elegantly and simply: they were a professional class of people within the tribe of Judah who specialized in priestly services. plain and simple.

Naturally, since these people earned their living through payment for priestly services (in the form of food mostly), rather than having to engage in agriculture or herding, they were not tied to the land and were encouraged to emigrate from Judah in search of "clients" elsewhere in the land. This is just like a doctor, lawyer or other professional will often go anywhere his services are needed while a factory or store owner will not. The factory owner is tied to the land; the professional is not only free but encouraged to move about in search of business. Note in the story of Samuel how he would travel around each year through the towns of Ephraim and Benjamin: Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, Ramah (1Sam 7:16-17).

The "prototype" story from which we can derive (and induce) all other Levite emigrations out of Judah is actually the Pesel micah story. The verse states that the Levite was looking "to sojourn wherever he can find" (Judges 17:9). This has one and only meaning: he was looking to expand his business and find customers within the northern tribes and he actually found exactly what he was looking for. When Micah saw that a "levite" is passing through the land he hired him on the spot to officiate in his temple. Micah was happy for he acquired a "Levite" (professional priest) for his temple (Judges 17:13) and the Levite was happy for he had found what he was looking for, a job.

But the Pesel Micah story does not merely explain how the Levites came to inhabit the North; the story has much deeper significance. In my opinion this story marked the beginning of the spread of Yahwism to the North, following the Levite’s kidnapping and eventual service in the temple the Danites erected at Laish. This wasn’t just an isolated event. By appointing a Levite to the Dan temple, the Danites signaled their acceptance of Levite religious doctrine, primary of which was the unity of the god "Yahweh" and his characteristics as described in Exodus (34:6-7). Before the Levites arrived, the North probably never even heard of "Yahweh". Now that the Levites arrived, they were told to worship one and only one god and his name was "Yahweh tsebaoth". Furthermore, the entire political connection between the North and South in later generations was precipitated by this Levite migration. Since the North had accepted the religious doctrine of the southern Levites, they now shared a strong cultural bond with the Judahites of the south which allowed for political unity during the early days of Saul and during David’s and Solomon’s reign. If not for the Levite migration and the resultant sharing of a similar faith, the Joseph tribes probably would not have felt any closer to Judah than to Amon Moab and Edom (who were equally "Hebrews") and even Aram and Sidon (Phoenicia). In fact, in later years Israel sometimes aligned itself with Aram against Judah and Judah sometimes aligned itself with Aram against Israel (1kings 15:19).

Which tribes participated in the Exodus?

According to my current tentative theory there were actually two different Exodus’s. One was the Exodus of Judah and the second was that of the Jospeh tribes. These tribes were both in Egypt at some point in history for some time due to drought in Canaan. Then, when Semitic persecution in Egypt reached its peak they escaped or were expelled from there and they returned to the Semitic lands in the Levant. Judah seems to have followed a direct route from Egypt through the Sinai peninsula and to the southern sections of Canaan where it settled, while the Joseph tribes navigated around Edom and Moab and passing through the desert regions east of Edom and Moab finally reaching "Shittim" in the "plains of Moab" and crossing the Jordan from there. It seems to me that Judah experienced the Exodus first, perhaps a century or two before Joseph did.

Why did Judah settle in the south at once while Joseph passed through the transjordan deserts before returning to Canaan?

If it is true that Judah experienced the Exodus first, then it would seem that by the time Joseph emerged the southern sections of Canaan were already "taken" and they could therefore not pass through. Not only were the Judahites there but there were also the Philistines (who may not have been settled there yet when Judah arrived) on the coast, the Amalakites and the Canaanites from Arad. Naturally then the Josephites were forced east to transjordan and then north and they had to travel through desert regions longer than the Judahites before finally finding a "weak spot" in Jericho and thereby gaining access to the desirable land west of the Jordan ("cisjordan").

Who were the Judah core and vassal tribes?

Reuben Simeon Levi and Judah are the core of the "Le’ah tribes". This is reflected by the original J text concerning the birth of these eponyms (Gen 29:31-35) and also by the fact that only these four tribes inhabited the southern sections of the Levant. E or some other editor later attributed Issachar and Zebulun to Le’ah as well and he assigned Gad and Asher to Leah’s maidservant. This tradition seemingly reflects the political situation at the time of David. Issachar and Zebulun were firmly under David’s control and so they were considered regular brothers of Judah while Gad in the transjordan and Asher on the Phoenician coast were tributaries of David and thus considered descendants of Leah’s maidservant.

Who were the Joseph core and vassal tribes?

Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin constituted the core of the Northern tribal federation. These tribes occupied the central highlands of Canaan, what was later called "Mt. Ephraim", and they were extremely powerful. Their economy consisted of barley, wheat, grapevines and olive orchards, which they also traded with Sidon. Dan and Naphtali are seen as descendant from a Rachel maidservant, but it is not clear to me why. Possibly, since they never came under the dominion of David (North Dan that is, South Dan was in Central Canaan) but they did come under the North’s control either before or after David, it seemed more appropriate to classify them as Rachel vassals.

Did the other Le’ah tribes accompany Judah in its descent and later Exodus from Egypt?

No! I am convinced that Issachar, Zebulun, Gad and Asher never experienced the Exodus from Egypt. In addition to the lack of evidence that they did experience the Exodus, there is also a practical reason: these tribes inhabited fertile land that did NOT depend on rainwater as much as the lands of Joseph and Judah. Issachar and Zebulun lived in the Jezreel valley region while Gad inhabited fertile land in the Transjordan that once belonged to Sihon, the Amorite king and Asher was on the coast where rain is plentiful. Thus, if these tribes or the eponyms of these tribes already inhabited those fertile regions before their supposed descent into Egypt, then there would never have been any need to go to Egypt in the first place, for the famine would not affect their land. Also the disjunction of these tribal lands from the Judah bloc of land in southern Canaan is further evidence that those lands were not conquered/populated by Issachar-Zebulun and Judah at the same time.

Reuben, Simeon and Levi are a bit harder to figure out. In the book of Judges we see the tradition that Judah and Simeon formed a military alliance when conquering their lands, but Reuben is not mentioned. On the other hand we know that Reuben was at one point an extremely important tribe in the south superseding Judah and in the Joseph legend in the book of Genesis it is Reuben, not Judah, who comes to the rescue of Joseph and later pledges his son as collateral against Jacob’s son Benjamin, according to one ancient source. Thus, we see that Reuben also held an Egyptian Exodus tradition (assuming that the ancient source above is Reubenite) and they were very possibly the most important tribe within the southern bloc at the time of Judah’s exodus. Recall also the story of Dathan and Abiram the Reubenites, disputing Moses’ leadership. This legend possibly reflects the point in time when the Reubenite political and religious leadership of the southern bloc was replaced by Moses (from the tribe of Levi/Judah) and the Reubenites made a last-ditch effort to regain control but failed. In light of all of this evidence, it seems that all four tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah participated in the Judahite Exodus.

How long were the Judahite tribes in Egypt and how many people participated in the Exodus?

J makes it abundantly clear that the fourth generation returned to Canaan. This is stated openly (Gen 15:16) "the fourth generation will return here". You will ask me immediately "but in verse 13 it says that Abraham’s descendants will spend 400 years in Egypt?"

Some scholars have attempted to reconcile the two traditions saying that each patriarchal generation is 100 years. Indeed, Abraham was 100 years old when he had Isaac according to P and Jacob was 100 years old or close to it when he had Joseph according to the P claim that Joseph was 30 when he stood before Pharaoh and Jacob was 130 when he stood before Pharaoh (although to be exact, Jacob appeared before Pharaoh at least 9 years after Joseph did, accounting for the seven fat years and two of the seven lean years).

But there are several problems with this. For one, P says openly that Isaac was 60 when he had Jacob, so that’s much less than a full "patriarchal generation". Secondly, J rarely if ever uses precise numbers when dealing with chronology and measurements. 400 years is more of a deuteronomical or priestly expression than a J expression. Third, we know that the deuteronomist considers a generation to be 40 years. Thus, David and Solomon reign for 40 years each and Solomon’s temple is built "480" years after the Exodus, which really means 12 generations. Accordingly, P may be articulating here an entirely different tradition which holds that the Israelites were in Egypt for ten generations, not four. We already know that the priestly writer is fond of ten-generation intervals: ten generations between Adam and Noah and ten generation between Noah and Abraham. Likewise, P is continuing this tradition here and saying that there were ten generations from Abraham until the return of the Israelites to Canaan. For our purposes, however, we will ignore the P tradition and we will stick to the older and more reliable J tradition of four generations.

Why is the four generation tradition so important? Because it changes the entire picture we have of the Exodus. Instead of a major, somewhat-miraculous multiplication of Israelites from 70 to 600,000 persons in the course of several generations, we should picture a modest, natural growth occurring in the course of just four generations among just three or four tribes (depending on whether we count Levi as separate tribe). Note that even if we assume that each of 72 males entering Egypt had 12 children!! (six males and six females) there won’t be more than 15,552 people in the fourth generation. The Bottom line is that according to the J tradition, which makes it very clear that the fourth generation returned to Canaan, there couldn’t have been anything even remotely close to 600,000 people, who left Egypt according to P.

Rather, in the J tradition there were just three hebrew families, Reuben, Simeon and Judah who emerged from Egypt. I can only estimate that each of these families numbered in the hundreds (in the fourth generation), producing a total of less than 1000 people who participated in the Judahite Exodus. This scenario is also much more compatible with the fact that no archaeological remains were found anywhere in the Sinai peninsula from the period of the Israelite Exodus and the fact that there are no Egyptian records whatsoever pertaining to a mass exodus of Hebrew slaves from their country. Levi was possibly not a separate tribe, but rather the title of a priest, so that a Levite is actually also a Reubenite, Judahite, or Simeonite.

Is Moses a historical figure and if so what role did he play within the Judahite tribal alliance?

Moses is surely a historical personage. There is no reason for me to doubt that a person by this name actually existed who headed the Judahite tribal alliance out of Egypt. What is questionable rather is all the details attributed to him; the fact that he was born to a "Levite", the manner in which was hidden from the Egyptians in an ark in the Nile for three months etc.. What is also questionable is how much of the "law" that Judah and Israel later adopted was initiated by him.
In all likelihood, Moses was NOT a lawmaker. His era was too unstable to accommodate lawmaking and law enforcement. It was a tribal-oriented era in which "each man did what was right in his eyes" as was the case in the later era of the Judges according to the Deuteronomist. Nonetheless, if he was indeed a priest and a leader, then by definition he was also involved in some basic level of order-keeping and religious creativity. Certainly, however, not even a fraction of the laws attributed to him in the Pentateuch as currently formulated are really from him. It was a common ancient practice to attribute new laws to "classical leaders" in order to promote their widespread acceptance. Thus the Deuteronomical law code was "found" in the days of Josiah, meaning that it was first "invented" by his court officials who attributed it to an "old document" found in the temple, when in fact it was anything but.

What kind of shrine did the Judahites have in their early tribal days?

Note that even if you don’t believe in by budding theory that Judah entered Canaan from the south and Israel from the East at different times and without any coordination between them, you still must admit that there was a very weak bond between Israel and Judah in early tribal days. This is evident from the various episodes told in the book of Judges in which Judah is completely neglected or treated as a separate entity, when talking about "Israel". (See the story of Deborah and Barak). Thus, in all likelihood, Israel and Judah did not share a shrine and other religious tenets and artifacts. R. E. Friedman notes that the "ark of the covenant" is NEVER mentioned in E while the "tent of meeting" is NEVER mentioned in J. So we know that in Judah the Ark was a revered object but we don’t know where it was kept. I am convinced that before the ark arrived in Shiloh (Ephraimite territory) in the days of Eli and Samuel (c. 1100 BCE) it resided somewhere in Judean territory. In fact it may have even been stationed in one of the five philistine cities: Ashdod, Gazah, Ashkelon Gath, Ekron. These cities were originally under Judahite control and perhaps when the Philistines arrived on the scene (c. 1150 BCE) and started taking over territory from Judah, the Levites (who were the Judahite priests) moved the ark in a Northeast direction, finally setting up the shrine in Shiloh. Recall how the Danites were forced out of their territory due to the invading Philistines which set off the Pesel Micah story told in Judges. Note also how it is said in that story that the Danites "recognized the voice of the Levite", indicating that the Levites were common in the Danite and Judahite coastal regions later vanquished by the Philistines. I should point out that Hebron or Jerusalem were definitely not the original locations of Judahite shrines for those cities were not yet under Judahite control. (In fact, Jerusalem, then called "Jebus", lay in Benjamite territory). Also, Hebron was conquered by a "kenizzite" clan under Caleb’s leadership who only later became integrated into Judah.

Is it possible that there was more than one shrine in Judah in those days?

Not only is it possible but it is almost certain. Judahite territory was quite expansive and it would not be practical to require a Judahite to travel such long distances whenever he wished to offer sacrifices to his God. Any village in Judah mentioned as a "levite city" in the book of Joshua probably contained a shrine as well in early days, for what were the Levites doing there if not offering their priestly services to the public? Nine villages are mentioned: Hebron, Libnah, Jattir, ‘eshtemo`ah, Cholon, Debir, ‘ayin, Jatteh and Beth Shemesh (Joshua 21:13).

What did the Ark of the Covenant contain?

In those early days, writing on papyrus had not been invented yet, at least not among the Judahites. There were two ways of recording things: clay tablets and stone tablets. According to the Bible, the "Ten Articles of the Covenant" were carved into stone and kept in the Ark. Now even though the Ark seems to serve a utilitarian purpose only according to this understanding, it is possible that it gradually took on additional significance. By the time the golden Cherub statues were added to the Ark, the ark had been transformed from a mere "carrying case" to the most holy object in the shrine. There is considerable debate as to what the Cherub’s represented or even what kind of creature it is. R.E. Friedman believes they served as a pedestal for the deity; that is, the deity presumably rested on their wings. But I am somewhat hesitant to accept this because I strongly believe in that all ancient religious objects and ideas were of a concrete nature; no imagination! These people lived very simple and concrete lives anything that could not be felt with the senses did not exist. They were not capable or willing to "imagine" a deity resting upon the cherub’s wings. Rather, the cherubs may have represented angels or messengers sent down from God in heaven to guide and assist the Hebrews in their struggles.

Why is the "tent of meeting" not mentioned in J?

By the time J and E were committed to writing, the monarchy had already been divided. The southern Davidic kingdom possessed a magnificent temple in Jerusalem (or at least it was magnificent according to the biblical claim) while the North had several shrines none of which were very elaborate or permanent. I think that this very basic difference between the North and South is why the North developed or retained the idea of the "tent of meeting" while the South had no need for such tent. Another reason could be advanced in light of the fact that the Israelites, according to our theory, spent much more time wandering in the desert that Judah did. E, therefore, felt compelled to conceive of a tent of meeting as the official national shrine before they entered Canaan while J saw no such need.

Meaning of the Hebrew root 'pqd'

The Hebrew root ‘pqd’ is grossly misuderstood and mistranslated. The problem with this word is that it is found in the Bible in various contexts prompting the translator to come up with a different meaning in many instances depending on the context. What they don’t realize is that even though CBH (classical Biblical Hebrew) is a relatively poor language with a small vocabulary and the speaker or writer of Hebrew can therefore express himself with a word that can be applied in several ways, yet such words can have one and only one primary meaning.

The secondary meanings of pqd used for translation purposes are: miss, remember, reserve, count.

The primary meaning of pqd as a noun is an item that is temporarily cared for by a person who does not own it. The item is thus a "temporary burden" upon the niphqad (trustee).

The best example of the pqd root used in this way in JE is Gen 41:36 RSV: the food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine... (wehayah ha’akel lepiqqadon le’arets). But the RSV is not even consistent with its translation of this root two verses earlier: let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land... (weyepaqqed piqqedim ‘al ha`arets). In one verse it means overseers and in the next verse it means reserve food? Unlikely!

Rather, Piqqadon here is borrowed from the primary meaning of the word as used in Lev 5:21. Piqqadon is an object that is entrusted to a friend to watch over it and guard it temporarily so that it will be available at a later time to the owner. The piqqadon is thus an object of burden to the trustee. Likewise, the food shall be "carried by the land" or "entrusted to the land" during the seven fat years so that it is available later during the seven lean years. weyepaqqed piqqedim ‘al ha`arets means: Paraoh shall place the food as a temporary burden over the land.
Likewise, whenever the root pqd is used as a verb referring to an army, it means to provide battle equipment to troops, which they are responsible to guard and care for temporarily. When the battle is over they must return the equipment.

י וַיַּשְׁכֵּם יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בַּבֹּק%

Which Hebrew tribes were slaves in Egypt?

Judah seems to be one of those tribes who never was in Egypt. We know for sure that the tribe of Levi and Joseph were in Egypt. Levi we know because Moses and Aharon and the entire concept of Yahwism originated from this tribe during their stay in Egypt. In fact, I strongly suspect that the Levites were in turn influenced by the Egyptian monotheist movement by Akhenaten http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten.

According to J theology, why were the Hebrews enslaved in Egypt? The reason for their enslavement is openly stated in J, even though it is commonly misinterpreted. Common sense dictates that J should have something to say about why the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to whom Yahweh promised the land of Canaan, should be enslaved for four generations (Gen 16:16) before inheriting the land.

There are actually two reasons for their enslavement:

One reason is "for the iniquity of the Amorite has not been complete until now" (Gen 16:16). But why should the Hebrews suffer enslavement? Wouldn’t it be sufficient that the Hebrews simply sojourn in Egypt like their forbears did and have the status of "aliens" while waiting for the Amorites to be punished and expelled from Canaan for their sin? It should be noted that the sections of Exodus where the "rigorous labor of the Israel" is described (Exodus 1:13) are not part of J. And so it is possible that J had a different idea of what alien status in a foreign land involved for the Hebrews.

But there is another verse we need to focus in on:

ו וַיַּעֲבֹר יְהוָֹה עַל-פָּנָיו וַיִּקְרָא יְהוָֹה יְהֹוָה אֵל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב-חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת: ז נֹצֵר חֶסֶד לָאֲלָפִים נֹשֵֹא עָוֹן וָפֶשַׁע וְחַטָּאָה וְנַקֵּה לֹא יְנַקֶּה פֹּקֵד עֲוֹן אָבוֹת עַל-בָּנִים וְעַל-בְּנֵי בָנִים עַל-שִׁלֵּשִׁים וְעַל-רִבֵּעִים:

Yahweh passed before him and Yahweh proclaimed, "Yahweh is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in kindness and faithfulness, keeping kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation" (Exodus 34:6-7).

This verse is extremely central to J theology because it essentially summarizes the character of the newly invented deity "Yahweh". Later, when the Hebrews committed the grave "iniquity" of accepting the negative report of the spies and conspiring to rebel against Moses and head back to Egypt, Moses invoked this verse to show that Yahweh is a forgiving God (Numbers 14:17). But what is meant by the statement "visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children..."?

I have a strong suspicion that it refers to the tribal patriarchs iniquity of selling Joseph into slavery. God is saying that he had remembered this iniquity for four generations (i.e. Levi, Qehath, `amram, Moses) but the fourth generation is now being forgiven and he will bring them into the promised land remembering the faithful kindness of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to the thousands of Hebrews about to enter Canaan. J emphasizes the fact that only the three patriarchs exhibited kindness towards God. Yet thousands of their descendants will now benefit as a result. J also emphasizes Yahweh’s concern for justice necessitating the punishment of four generations for the Joseph iniquity.

We thus see that the Hebrew enslavement in Egypt according to J is a punishment for the sin of selling Joseph into slavery.

Other proof will be listed below:

In Genesis 42:21-22 (which is not part of J) Jacob’s sons realize that their troubles are a punishment for selling Joseph into slavery: Then they said to one another, "In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us and we would not listen; therefore is this distress come upon us." The meaning of this is a bit deeper that it seems. It’s not just "a" punishment; it’s punishment in kind. They sold Joseph into Egyptian slavery; now they are about to be enslaved to an Egyptian official. They refused to listen to Joseph’s supplications not to harm him; now they are supplicating Joseph to believe them that they are not spies but he refuses to listen to them. Joseph then tests his half-brothers to see whether they are still antagonistic towards the "Rachel brothers" (Benjamin) and when he sees their devotion and concern for Benjamin he forgives them, identifies himself and invites them over to Egypt so that they may survive the famine. However, their iniquity is not quite forgiven by God. A new king emerges who does not "know" Joseph (which has the secondary meaning of that he does not remember that Joseph forgave his brothers) and he enslaves the brothers’ descendants just like their ancestors caused Joseph to be enslaved.

There is also another interesting verse in Genesis which seems somewhat trivial and out of context but is now very well understood:

כד וַיַּרְא יוסב לְאֶפְרַיִם בְּנֵי שִׁלֵּשִׁים גַּם בְּנֵי מָכִיר בֶּן-מְנַשֶּׁה יֻלְּדוּ עַל-בִּרְכֵּי יוסב:

Joseph saw a third generation to Ephraim. Even the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh gave birth on the knees of Joseph (Genesis 50:23).

The question is: why is this mentioned? and why not talk about the third/fourth generations of the other brothers? But according to our explanation, this verse sits very well. It is pointing out that Joseph’s descendants, up to four generations, were all "seen" by Joseph, that is they were treated well and protected from slavery because of Joseph’s status. This is an important anecdote because it is essential that the punishment of the rest of the Hebrews not involve the Joseph tribe since Joseph is the victim and not the sinner. He’s the reason that the other tribes were enslaved in Egypt in the first place.

Why mention four generations of Joseph? Because after four generations, all of Israel is bound to emerge from Egypt anyway and so there’s no need to point out that the fifth generation and onward were "seen" by Joseph.

In the very next verse Joseph makes his brothers swear that they will bring his bones up from Egypt and bury him with his fathers once Yahweh remembers them on occasion of the Exodus. This passage is now situated well contextually because Joseph is saying: even though my progeny will be well off during those four generations and yours will not, swear to me that after Yahweh brings you up from Egypt you will bring my bones with you (which act symbolizes that the Joseph tribe remains part of Israel and does not become assimilated into Egypt).

Other proof:

"fathers" and "sons" as mentioned in Exodus 34:7 are abstract terms if not for my interpretation. Abstractions are possible in Priestly writings but they are virtually nonexistent in the extremely ancient J source. In J everything is concrete and could be felt by the senses. God himself is a physical entity in J who descends from heaven in order to destroy the tower of Babel and to rescue Israel from Egypt. J is not talking about a theoretical sinner whose four generations must suffer as a result. In fact Deut 24:16 states openly that sons should not be put to death for a sin of their fathers. If our J verse here lays forth a central Yahwist principle (of which we see no application anywhere in the Bible), then the Deuteronomist would have been unable to change that in the seventh century BCE. Rather, Yahweh is saying here what he had already done: he remembered the iniquity of the Jacob brothers for four generations. Now however, Yahweh is saying that he is about to remember the kindness of the patriarchs towards him and in turn visit kindness upon the thousands of their descendants by means of giving them the land of Canaan. But he expects some continuing service on the part of Israel as well and so he goes on making a covenant (Exodus 34:10) in which the duties of both parties are specified:

Yahweh will make "a wonderful act" (niphle’ath) before all the people and all will see that the deed of Yahweh is awesome (Exodus 34:10). This "wonderful act" refers to the the standing "as one heap" of the waters coming down from the Jordan so as to allow the Israelites to pass in dry land (Joshua 3:16). The term "niphla`oth" (wonders) is mentioned in Joshua in this regard (part of the J narrative) and it’s --in all likelihood-- what the verse here is referring to. (the plural "wonders" in Joshua is probably the hands of a late editor; it should read without the waw and the translation is "a wonderful act", not "wonderful acts").

In turn, Israel will observe the "ten articles of the covenant" (diberei haberith `asereth hadebarim Exodus 34:28) involving acts of service to Yahweh such as dedicating firstborn animals and fruits to Yahweh and observing three annual festivals to Yahweh.

What is the meaning of Pesach?

Pesach is NOT the name of a holiday. It is the name of a certain kind of sacrifice, just like there is an olah (burnt-offering), shelamim (peace) and in other traditions todah (thanksgiving) chatath (sin), asham (guilt) and nedabah (voluntary). These are all different kinds of sacrifices that people were expected to offer to yahweh on different occasions and whose sacrificial procedure typically varied. It seems that the distinguishing characteristic of the Pesach was NOT its connection to the Abib festival (dated to the 14th of the first lunar month in P). Rather the pesach sacrifice was tied to the season of the year. In other words, other sacrifices were contingent upon the commital of transgressions (asham) or upon certain events (todah) or were offered on a regular basis (olah) or were just general peace-offerings offered to yahweh when things were going well (shelam or shelamim). Pesach’s uniqueness was that it was tied to a solar calendar; it was brought on the three key seasons of the solar calendar: the season of ripening (abib), the season of harvest (qatsir) and the season of gathering (asiph).

Ironically, even though it seems that there would be many other occasions when one would bring an animal sacrifice to the Yahweh shrine, there actualy wasn’t. In fact, it seems that in the very beginning of days, people would not even observe three annual festivals but just one. This is apparent from the passage in 1Samuel that describes how Elkanah used to go up to the house of yahweh in Shiloh to sacrifice "miyamim yamimah" (from year to year). But even when three times a year became the norm (perhaps sometime during the divided monarchy after 922 BCE), it was usually ONLY three times a year. Unlike in P where a person is obliged to bring an offering upon various actions and events, as described above, those sacrifices are never mentioned in J or E. In JE we only find three kinds of sacrifices: Olah, Shelam (sometimes called zebach shelam or simply zebach) and Pesach (which is also sometimes called zebach pesach or simply zebach). An olah was offered wholly to yahweh and was not brought by individuals and so we won’t discuss that here. Between Shelamim and Pesach we find no difference in sacrifice ritual or rules. The only difference is that Pesach was tied to a season and the Shelam was not but since people were bringing the Pesach three times a year anyway, the Shelam never gained widespread practice by inviduals (atleast during the first temple).

In essence what I am saying here is that during the first temple there was no clear distinction between Pesach and Shelam. The Pesach was the Shelam (that, is the seasonal offering was actually little more than a peace offering) and the Shelam was the Pesach (that is, the peace offering was tied to annual seasons). Accordingly, when JE talks about a Pesach it is talking about ANY peace offering (although those offerings were typically tied to a season) and the term is synonymous with Zebach which literally means simply "sacrifice".

What is the connection between Pesach and Matsah?

In the JE tradition, although leavened bread tastes better and is easier to digest than unleavened bread, it is considered "impure" and unbecoming for a godly sacrifice. Just like when it comes to animal offerings and grain offerings Yahweh wants the firstborn and the firstfruit, so when it comes to baked goods yahweh prefers matsah. It is really not my point here to go into details as to why and how this tradition developed. What we do know is that this is an extremely old tradtition and it is NOT tied specifically to Pesach. Any grain offering made to Yahweh or eaten along with sacrificial meat offered to Yahweh ought to be unleavened.

The prohibition against chamets in the oldest pentateuchal sources (Exodus 23:18 and 34:25) are very simple and minimal:

Not to eat chamets together with the sacrificial meat of the Pesach, expressed in the archaic form "do not slaughter the blood of my sacrifice over chamets".

There is no command to eat Matsah as in D and P.

The seven-day prohibition is not from JE. According to JE, chamets is only forbidden to be eaten along with the Pesach.

Analysis of the JE texts on the Abib festival

שמות לד יח אֶת־חַג הַמַּצּוֹת תִּשְׁמֹר שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תֹּאכַל מַצּוֹת אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִךָ לְמוֹעֵד חֹדֶשׁ הָֽאָבִיב כִּי בְּחֹדֶשׁ הָֽאָבִיב יָצָאתָ מִמִּצְרָֽיִם: יט כָּל־פֶּטֶר רֶחֶם לִי וְכָֽל־מִקְנְךָ תִּזָּכָר פֶּטֶר שׁוֹר וָשֶֽׂה: כ וּפֶטֶר חֲמוֹר תִּפְדֶּה בְשֶׂה וְאִם־לֹא תִפְדֶּה וַֽעֲרַפְתּוֹ כֹּל בְּכוֹר בָּנֶיךָ תִּפְדֶּה וְלֹא־יֵֽרָאוּ פָנַי רֵיקָֽם: כא שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּֽעֲבֹד וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי תִּשְׁבֹּת בֶּֽחָרִישׁ וּבַקָּצִיר תִּשְׁבֹּֽת: כב וְחַג שָֽׁ בֻעֹת תַּֽעֲשֶׂה לְךָ בִּכּוּרֵי קְצִיר חִטִּים וְחַג הָֽאָסִיף תְּקוּפַת הַשָּׁנָֽה: כג שָׁלשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה יֵֽרָאֶה כָּל־זְכוּרְךָ אֶת־פְּנֵי הָֽאָדֹן יְהוָֹה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵֽל: כד כִּֽי־אוֹרִישׁ גּוֹיִם מִפָּנֶיךָ וְהִרְחַבְתִּי אֶת־גְּבֻלֶךָ וְלֹֽא־יַחְמֹד אִישׁ אֶֽת־אַרְצְךָ בַּֽעֲלֹֽתְךָ לֵֽרָאוֹת אֶת־פְּנֵי יְהוָֹה אֱלֹהֶיךָ שָׁלשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָֽה: כה לֹֽא־תִשְׁחַט עַל־חָמֵץ דַּם־זִבְחִי וְלֹֽא־יָלִין לַבֹּקֶר זֶבַח חַג הַפָּֽסַח:

שמות כג יד שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים תָּחֹג לִי בַּשָּׁנָֽה: טו אֶת־חַג הַמַּצּוֹת תִּשְׁמֹר שִׁבְעַת יָמִים תֹּאכַל מַצּוֹת כַּֽאֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִךָ לְמוֹעֵד חֹדֶשׁ הָֽאָבִיב כִּי־בוֹ יָצָאתָ מִמִּצְרָיִם וְלֹא־יֵֽרָאוּ פָנַי רֵיקָֽם: טז וְחַג הַקָּצִיר בִּכּוּרֵי מַֽעֲשֶׂיךָ אֲשֶׁר תִּזְרַע בַּשָּׂדֶה וְחַג הָֽאָסִף בְּצֵאת הַשָּׁנָה בְּאָסְפְּךָ אֶֽת־מַֽעֲשֶׂיךָ מִן־הַשָּׂדֶֽה: יז שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה יֵֽרָאֶה כָּל־זְכוּרְךָ אֶל־פְּנֵי הָֽאָדֹן יְהוָֹֽה: יח לֹֽא־תִזְבַּח עַל־חָמֵץ דַּם־זִבְחִי וְלֹֽא־יָלִין חֵֽלֶב־חַגִּי עַד־בֹּֽקֶר: יט רֵאשִׁית בִּכּוּרֵי אַדְמָתְךָ תָּבִיא בֵּית יְהוָֹה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁל גְּדִי בַּֽחֲלֵב אִמּֽוֹ:
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I have this strong suspicion that the command about eating Matsah for seven days was not originally part of the JE text. Rather the E text should read something like this (and a similar substitution should be made to the J text):

יד שָׁלֹשׁ רְגָלִים תָּחֹג לִי בַּשָּׁנָֽה: טו אֶת־חַג הַאביב תעשה לך בכורי שְעֹרָה: טז וְחַג הַקָּצִיר בִּכּוּרֵי מַֽעֲשֶׂיךָ אֲשֶׁר תִּזְרַע בַּשָּׂדֶה וְחַג הָֽאָסִף בְּצֵאת הַשָּׁנָה בְּאָסְפְּךָ אֶֽת־מַֽעֲשֶׂיךָ מִן־הַשָּׂדֶֽה: יז וְלֹא־יִרְאוּ פָנַי רֵיקָֽם שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים בַּשָּׁנָה יִרְאֶה כָּל־זְכוּרְךָ אֶת־פְּנֵי הָֽאָדֹן יְהוָֹֽה: יח לֹֽא־תִזְבַּח עַל־חָמֵץ דַּם־זִבְחִי וְלֹֽא־יָלִין חֵֽלֶב־חַגִּי עַד־בֹּֽקֶר: יט רֵאשִׁית בִּכּוּרֵי אַדְמָתְךָ תָּבִיא בֵּית יְהוָֹה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹֽא־תְבַשֵּׁל גְּדִי בַּֽחֲלֵב אִמּֽוֹ:

And the translation is as follows (NRSV with my revision):

14 Three times in the year you shall hold a festival for me. 15 You shall observe the Festival of Fresh Ears (of barley) with the first fruits of barley 16 and the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of your labor that you sow in the field and the Festival of Ingathering at the year’s end with your labor that you gather from the field. 17 No one shall appear before me empty-handed. Three times in the year, all your males shall see the face of the lord yahweh. 18 You shall not spill the blood of my sacrifice over leavened bread, or let the fat of my festival remain until the morning. 19 The choicest of the first fruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Yahweh your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.

How do I know that the seven-day matsah verse (Ex 23:15 and 34:18) is an insertion by a later D or P editor?

There are several clues!

1. The language used is typical of P. Both the term "moed" and (appointed time) and "tishmor" (you shall guard) are hallmarks of P.

2. "as I have commanded you" is an extremely suspicious phrase and really doesn’t make any sense if it is part of JE. It seems that the author is referring to a widely known law code that the reader is assumed to be familiar with and the author’s intent is just to reiterate it and perhaps elaborate or modify it. Since the JE "book of the covenant" (of which this verse is part) is the the first published law code, such a reference to a past commandment does not make any sense. Where in JE do we previously find the seven-day matsah law? Even if we do find it elsewhere in JE (Ex 13:6-7 if you believe that this particular text is originally JE), why would we assume that the other instance is primal and and this one secondary and why would there be a need to reference it?

3. The other two festivals are named after an aglicultural season. Abib is the ripening of barley ears season Qatsir is the wheat harvest season and Asiph is the ingathering season. Why doesn’t he call it chag h’abib like the other two festivals? Note that in Leviticus 23:6 the P author names the three festivals Matsoth, Bikkurim and Sukkoth, all three names based on practices observed during those festivals rather than on aglicultural seasons and so we see that "festival of the matsoth" is a Priestly terminology.

4. We don’t find anywhere in the Bible or elsewhere that seven-day festivals were actually observed during the first temple, let alone three such festivals per year. (Since the text does not differentiate between the three festivals we are made to assume that they all last for seven days if we assume that the abib festival is seven days). Since the JE text was written during the first temple, they must have been applicable at the time of authorship and this verse can therefore not have been part of the original JE cultic calendar.

5. "for in it you emerged from Egypt" is the reason given for the observance of the Matsoth festival in the Abib season but that is inconsistent with the flow of the JE text. We see that the other festivals are tied to agricultural seasons and ONLY to agricultural seasons. Why would the JE author tie the "matsoth" festival to the historical event of Exodus while completely ignoring the association of the other festivals with any historical event in Israel’s history?

6. The implication of this verse is that Matsah is somehow unique to the abib festival but that seems to be disputed elsewhere in JE: in the cultic calendar all three annual festivals are mentioned and then laws pertaining to those festivals are enumerated and one of those is that the "sacrifice shall not be slaughtered over leavened bread". Clearly, this rule applies to the sacrifices of all three festivals and we thus see that the prohibition of chamets in JE is not peculiar to the Abib festival.

This is why I have come to the conclusion that the clause about eating matsah for seven days in the JE cultic calendar was added in by a later editor, probably from the priestly school. "as I have commanded you" refers to a command contained somewhere in the prestly code (probably Ex 12:15 since the prieslty cultic calendar Leviticus 23 hasn’t been introduced yet). The priestly writer thus deliberately edited the existing JE cultic calendar in order to produce a new and radical change: The festival of Abib is s seven day festival and not just one day and leavened bread is forbidden all seven days. Other major inventions of the priesly writer are:

Seven-day Matsoth and Sukkoth festival but only a one-day Bikkurim festival. (in J all three festivals are one-day).

Leavened bread is forbidden during the Matsoth festival, encouraged on the Bikkurim festival (the actual firstfruit grain offering brought on Bikkurim was chamets) and treated neutrally on the Sukkoth festival.

The Pesach animal sacrifice ("chag" or "zebach") is brought on the first day of the seven-day festival. (in JE the Pesach is offered on the seventh day of the Abib and Qatsir month).

The Pesach sacrifice is only offered on the matsoth festival. There is no Pesach sacrifice on other festivals; there are only communal Olah sacrifices. (in JE all three annual festivals are to be celebrated with Pesach animal sacrifices by the individual, if affordable).

The festivals are called Matsoth, Bikkurim and Sukkoth after the ritual actions required on each one of them: Eating of unleavened bread is unique to the Matsoth festival. The offering of firstfruits of the new wheat grain is unique to the Bikkurim festival and the dwelling in booths is unique to the Sukkoth festival. (In J the festivals are named after the agricultural seasons in which they are observed and the actual rituals are the same for all three except that the offerings are made from whatever produce is in season).

Matsoth and Sukkoth are on the fiteenth day of the month. Matsoth is in the first month and Sukkoth is in the seventh month. Bikkurim is an appendage to the matsoth festival just like Atsereth is an appendage to the Sukkoth festival. The only difference is that Bikkurim is celebrated seven weeks after Matsoth and Atsereth is celebrated immediately after Sukkoth. (In J, Qatsir is just as important a festival as Abib and Asiph and is NOT dependent in timing on Abib. Abib and Qatsir are observed on the seventh day after their respective agricultural season commences. Thus the Abib festival was held roughly on the seventh of Iyur and Qatsir on the seventh of Sivan. There does not seem to be a seven-day count towards the Asiph festival and so the Asiph festival was celebrated immediately upon the commence of Ingathering or anytime during the season (which is quite extensive).

individual vs national festival. The priestly festivals are national, that is the entire nation is to observe the festival on the very same day and in the manner prescribed by the Priestly code. In J, festival observance is an individual matter. Each person celebrates the festival when he is engaged in the agricultural activity to which it is attached. Thus, there is no single day during which the entire nation is convened in the central shrine in observance of a national holiday. Furthermore, J does not require the individual to offer anything specific in any given number or quantity. In J, the individual offers to yahweh whatever is seasonal in agriculture and whatever firstborn kosher animal is available for sacrifice as a Pesach.

The Pesach must be a one year old male sheep in P and does not have to be a firstborn whereas in JE the Pesach animal can be any kosher male animal of any age but it must be a firstborn. Furthermore, all firstborn animals must be dedicated to yahweh as Pesach sacrifices.
The Pesach meat is not shared with the priests in P but it is shared with the priests and with God in JE, that is, certain parts of the animal are burned on the altar and certain parts are earmarked for the priests. P does not need to require people to share the Pesach with priests for according to Priestly law firstborn animals are completely committed to them (Num 18:17-18) and so the priests had no need for Pesach meat.